Filed under: Encouragement, Lindsey, gym, pain | Tags: elvi, elvis, fitness, half marathon, health, i.t. band, injury, Lindsey, marathon, mastis, patrick, runner's knee, running elvi, spark
It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten on the blog. That’s because I wasn’t able to run the marathon, and it was too hard to write about what I considered a failure. While attempting to run 14 miles on a Saturday long run, pain in my leg became too intense. I got half way around Forest Park and had to stop. I couldn’t run. I couldn’t even walk. Patrick had to run to the car and pick me up.
I took a week off from running, but it didn’t help. Eventually, I went to the doctor and learned I had runner’s knee and had injured my I.T. Band. I started physical therapy, but it became obvious I would not be able to make the marathon. And because the injury was so bad, I couldn’t do a half marathon either.
It’s taken me months, but I’m finally ready to begin running again. I’ve learned a lot from the journey. I’ve always been a sprinter, when it comes to running and everything else in life. I did not pace myself. I approached every run like a race. And I did not stretch properly or enough.
I love to focus on beating my time and have realized a half marathon race is more suited to my personality. Patrick and I are already registered to run the 2008 half marathon in Vegas. We may even join the running Elvi. We are also looking to run another half marathon before the December race.
I’m glad things turned out the way they have because I’ve learned many important lessons about running and about my personality. During the course of our training, we ran three 13-milers, so I’m very excited about running an “official” half marathon!
I’ve also focused on other areas of health and fitness. Yoga has helped my injury and I’m now focusing on becoming more flexible. I’m also taking classes at the gym, using the elliptical, and I have a personal trainer to help modify my workouts so I can gain strength. I’m also using the pool at the gym for a full body challenge.
And, I’ve created a series called “Spark Your Health” to motivate others to get in shape and eat well. I report and anchor on WSIL-TV and this series runs Monday nights. This series is based on the SparkPeople site. More than 700 viewers have joined the online Spark Challenge Team I created online. It’s so inspiring to reach out and help others accomplish personal goals.
Everything is on the up and up. I’m anxious to start running, but it’s still too early and too cold to officially start training. I want to thank everyone for their encouragement and advice. I can’t wait to start blogging about my new journey to half marathon success!
After Saturday’s run, I was sore. I was sore on Sunday and on Monday, but this morning I woke up and I was cured! I only had slight pain above my left knee. When I went to run late this afternoon, I ran hard. For the first lap–2.2 miles– I was floating. I didn’t feel the ground. I had sunglasses on, so I felt like I was watching a movie. Someone else was running, sweating, feeling pain. Not me. I knew I was making great time. I made myself take a walking break after 15 minutes. Because I felt so strong, I was afraid I may overdo it. After that, it was lap two. I started to feel my legs cramp up during the walk, and when I began to run again, I was going much slower. I felt pain in my knees, my shins. I felt the sweat and the sun beating down. But I continued on. By the time I was rounding out lap two– the final lap– I regained my strength. I finished the 4.4 mile course in just 36 minutes. I ran 8-minute miles! Let’s see how I do tomorrow!
Filed under: Cheat Meal, Lindsey, Long Runs, Road-Running, Travel, pain, video, water bottle
Patrick and I spent the week in Southern Illinois. On Saturday, we carb loaded and headed out to run. This time, we ran a portion of the Tunnel Hill trail. The trail is actually an old railroad bed, so it’s flat and very long. We began in Vienna (pronounced Vie-Anna), and ran to Belknap and back.
Neither of us ran this week. I tried a bit on Friday, but didn’t get too far. Luckily, we were able to finish the 16-miler. We loved running this trail. It felt good to run a softer surface. There are extremely small rock fragments over dirt. And, there were mile markers on the trail! The scenery was also nice. We started off seeing corn fields, ran over several bridges, through a tunnel, saw some horses, ran next to the Cache River Wetlands, which looks like a bright green swamp, and close to a huge tomato garden. There was a detour and we had to run on the road. It was dangerous. A rickety car was inches away from me as it passed going about 65 miles an hour. It didn’t get over. If anything, the driver tried to get close to me to perhaps scare me. It did. I’ve had to cover too many incidents as a reporter where someone gets hurt or even killed because a driver it trying to make a point or be funny. On the way back, I ignored the detour signs and continued on the portion of the trail that was closed. I had to jump over two ravines and cross the railroad tracks. I felt much safer than if I would have had to go on the road again.
I was extremely thirsty during the run. I continuously gulped down water while I was running, and chugged it when I walked. I did a good job at keeping myself hydrated throughout the run, but I really wanted more water. At times, it felt like my heart skipped a beat and I couldn’t catch my breath. I decided to take longer walking breaks, and at one point, I probably walked for 10 minutes straight. I just couldn’t breathe well. Finally, when I was ready to run, my legs began to cramp up. Finishing was difficult. Although I could see the end of the trail, I couldn’t keep my body going. I had to walk.
During the run, I thought some of the twigs on the ground were jumping. I also thought I saw a horizontal street sign in middle of the woods. It was actually a branch of extremely bright leaves where the sun was beaming down. Other than that, my mind didn’t play many tricks on me. But I did find some of the comments from passing bicyclists annoying. Because I run faster than Patrick, I’m usually about a half to an entire mile ahead. I’m also in the zone with my music turned up loud. I kept having to pause my music and ask the bicyclist to repeat what they were yelling at me, which was always something in the neighborhood of: “Slow down, so that guy can catch up! You’re going to fast,” and so on. I kept thinking something bad happened to Patrick, and I would slow down and look back and try to see if he was alright. I love humor, but it’s distracting when you’re in middle of a 16-mile run. Why can’t they just say “Hi! Good morning!” and move on?
I finished running in 2 hours and 45 minutes. I immediately went to the car and drank a bunch of ice cold water. I ate a banana, stretched, and waited for Patrick to get done. I could tell he was in a lot of pain. I had trouble walking for the rest of the day. In fact, it’s been more than 24 hours and I’m still having trouble walking!
After our run, we got all dressed up for the Inspiring Women’s Gala at SIUC.
Sometimes, I want to give up. I think running a marathon would be nice, but could I ever complete a full marathon? And what about completing the marathon between four and five hours? Will I just give up and walk, or give up and duck into a casino? After listening to so many women talk about what’s inspired them to keep going, I felt much stronger. One woman joined the Peace Corps when she retired! I found myself thinking: “I want to be like her!”
Plus, the entire evening was extremely special. Patrick and I were invited to sit with our friends at WSIL-TV, and we had a great time together. (All of us happened to wear black dresses!) Everyone was dressed up. When I say it was fancy– I mean it. Take a look at the butter: (It’s in a shape of a flower)
And this is just a sample of what we could have for dessert:
The next day, we went on an adventure in Cairo, Illinois! I’ve been wanting to take Patrick to Cairo for some BBQ, for about two years now. Today was the perfect time to take him there. I took him “downtown” and showed him where all the hustle and bustle used to be:
We could park anywhere, get out, and do just about anything. There was no one around! Makes us wonder why there are so many stop signs?
I even showed Patrick where an entrance way used to be to a major store. Now, you can just see a little bit of the intricate tile-work where the doorway used to be. Patrick acted like the building was still there:
Then, I took him to Fort Defiance State Park, which is between two bridges; one to Kentucky and one to Missouri. It’s as low as you can go in Illinois.
After that, we had BBQ!
After all that, we were tired! And… my legs still hurt!
It’s 2:30 p.m. and I’m extremely tired. Patrick and I decided (or had no choice) to run on Sunday. We both felt very sick on Saturday and had to postpone the run. We both had very trying weeks. I only ran about three miles the entire week because I was so busy and stressed. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to finish today’s 15 miler because I didn’t get in my practice runs. But, I did it!
Patrick woke up at 5 a.m. He used several different methods to get me to wake up, including beating on a tambourine. That helped me get into a good mood, but I was still nervous about running. We got to the park around 7 a.m. and ran the first four miles together. I thought I was going to give up. My knees and my feet didn’t hurt, but it was a struggle to keep going. After about seven miles I felt great.
I found my mind wondering while I ran. At times I would find myself thinking, “how did I get here? I don’t remember passing the Planetarium or the stables.” I lucked out when it came to traffic. There were minimal cars and I hit all the green lights– or little blinking signs that looked like people encouraging me to walk.
Unlike Saturdays, there were very few runners. And almost no one said hello. My music gave me encouragement. Then, after a lap and a half, I saw Patrick. He decided to run the last lap the opposite direction of myself. We waved and even high-fived when we saw each other which helped keep me going. The last two miles were horrendous.
I didn’t think I could finish, but I knew the faster I ran, the sooner I’d be done. I just kept pushing it. I found myself praying for my Yia Yia who is in the hospital, and for Patrick’s niece who is having some medical issues. I also prayed that I would be done running soon. I could see the finish line (aka, some bushes, the racquetball courts and a Band-Aide pasted to the ground. Okay, I couldn’t see the Band-Aide, but I knew it was there.)
As soon as I was done, I felt very emotional. Patrick told me about mile 14. Apparently mile 14 is a very difficult mile to get through. I went through it just fine, but as soon as I was done, it caught up with me. I couldn’t catch my breath. I stumbled to the Visitor’s Center and gulped down some cold water from the fountain. I was heading to the bathroom when I felt faint. I thought I might tumble over. I even saw stars. I had to hunch down and try to catch my breath. I still couldn’t.
I went into the restroom and washed my hands and face with cold water. I was still breathing very heave and a woman in a stall asked me if I was alright. I told her I was fine, I had just ran a very long way. She said, “okay.” I went to the car and got my water bottle. I stretched and ate a banana. Finally, I could breath again. I grabbed the water, the bananas, and some bagels and headed back to the Visitor’s Center to wait for Patrick. We cooled down for nearly 45 minutes in there before going home.
Then we went to my favorite place! Red Robin’s. The only bad thing is they don’t have their nutrition information online. But after running 15 miles, it doesn’t really matter. All we care about is an endless bowl of fries with mayo-bbq dipping sauce, and juicy gourmet burgers with glasses of ice water. It was a great day!
So, I didn’t run 10 miles. I was supposed to, and thought I did, but I didn’t. Here’s what happened: we ran a different way on the trail at Creve Coeur Park. Because there are several trails, it’s easy to go on the wrong one. That’s what happened. Instead of running 10 miles, I may have only run nine. And the worst part happened during the run. A certain stretch of the trail is on rock. If I don’t look down, I could trip. I was finding the run difficult, so I looked up at the leaves falling off the trees above. It happened. I tripped and rolled on my ankle. I wasn’t sure how bad I was hurt, but it went numb right away. I tried to take it easy for the rest of the run. Afterwards, I realized it was sprained very bad and I’ll have to stay off of it for a while until I recover. I hope it’s better in time for next week’s run. 
At least I got my snow cone:
I wanted to quit so bad. My ankles hurt from the get go. Finally, when I warmed up I needed to use the bathroom. Because I was running around Campus Lake at SIUC, I thought I could quickly use the bathrooms by the beach. No can do. They were locked. I decided to try to continue running, albeit very uncomfortably. My stomach was cramping, and even my shoulders hurt. Something was wrong with my left shoe. It felt like they were on too tight. I stopped a couple of times to re-tie them and move my sock around. It didn’t help. It especially hurt while I was rounding around the trail. When I got done, the top of my foot right below my ankle, felt bruised. The trail was crowded and it seemed like I was going to run into people almost every second. I cut my run short. I don’t even know how far I ran. The first lap was great, but when I took that non-existent pit stop, it threw my whole game off. I ran for 45 minutes and called it a day. I just hope that this weekend will be better. I know today’s run is very important. Oh well? There’s nothing else I can do. I’ll just focus on this weekend.
I decided to run my three miles today at the park where I first started my marathon training. It’s been more than a month, and I wanted to see how much I’ve grown. When I used to run Cannon Park, my right foot would fall asleep during the first mile. Today, it didn’t fall asleep until the very last mile. The park is still difficult to run because it is so small, but I felt much better about finishing the run. It’s so much easier to run and see the sights only once, instead of getting board seeing the same scenery over and over again. Nevertheless, the run went very well.
This is the best run ever! Patrick and I got to Forest Park in the morning. It wasn’t as early as we would have liked, but the temperature was in the high 40s, low 50s, during the run. We were freezing! Shortly after we began running, I took off. I didn’t see Patrick again until he was finished running. Right before we started, Patrick told me to run around the park once, and then one more time for a “victory lap.” When the run started to get tough, I just imagined that I was already done and I was just running down the streets of Vegas to let everyone know I was a winner. It was easy to imagine, because after running that long I started losing my mind a bit.
There is one very bad intersection at the park where cars just get off the highway and then are supposed to stop at a light. My brain wasn’t thinking correctly because I was so focused on running, so I found myself running across the road while vehicles were coming. I knew the lights had just changed, but I couldn’t comprehend what they had changed to. Someone honked at me. Still, I have no idea whether it was safe to run or not. I have to keep in mind to really think about what is going on around me when I run very long distances.
I was extremely tired when I was done, but I was still cold. It was very breezy during the run, and I ended up trying to warm up in the car. Patrick and I bought bananas and bagels beforehand, and when the run was almost complete, I could already taste the banana. The bagel tasted soooooo good! I can’t wait for next week. We’ll be running a half marathon next week.
After the run, we went back home and picked up my best friend Jane who was staying with us for her weekend vacation. We all went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for our cheat meal. This is one of my favorite places because it’s in a historic building on Laclede’s Landing downtown.
After that, we took a brewery tour at the history Anheuser Busch building. I was happy to learn the tour was free (as was two beers at the end of the tour. Although they were almost out of everything by the time it was our turn to drink. I asked them how they could be out of beer? Kinda weird that a brewery would run out.) We had a great time, but after a few sips I really wasn’t all that interested in drinking. I did get to sample some beers I’ve never tried, but after working out in the morning, my body didn’t want anything unhealthy.
That night, Patrick made hamburgers on the grill, and we also made some s’mores on the chimenea.
I had absolutely no motivation to run today. I just wanted to stay inside and veg out. I’m wishing I did. I hurt my foot during my last six-miler. In fact, I think I sprained my foot. Sounds odd, but I have shooting pains in my foot about every few steps, and after I ran today– the pain got a lot worse. It hurts to walk. I’m quite nervous about this injury because we’re supposed to run 12 miles on Saturday and I want to do a good job.
I also need to start stretching after runs. Sometimes I’m so happy to be done, I forget. Patrick is much better at remembering to stretch. Plus, I ran on the road and I think that’s a lot harder on my feet. And, I ate a big meal earlier today. I waited a couple of hours before I ran, but it wasn’t long enough. I felt the food sloshing around my stomach and I cramped up bad. It was hard to finish running and I just wanted to lay down afterward. Luckily, when the run was over, my stomach quickly recovered.
I’ve got my mind set on Saturday’s 12 miler. Wish me luck!
