Slip slidin' away

This summer is totally slip sliding away.  With August now looking back at me from the dry erase calendar on the fridge, I am officially resigning to the fact that I will simply not find my groove when it comes to working out this summer.  I have made a valiant effort, but much like a few other areas of my life, I am sitting here and admitting I cannot do it all.  

Well, maybe I should say I will not do it all.  As in I will not trade any one of my three measly rehab runs for a strength workout.  My #1 goal is to get back to healthy running, so I need to run.  If my back and biceps get a little mushy because I had to choose running over Tony, so be it.  

And I will not let my kids watch an hour of tv to start each morning because I want to work out.  They're pretty great at playing independently, but they do have their limits.  If left unsupervised (either by myself or the boob tube) for too long, the claws will come out...and I will not press pause to break up a fight over Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle weaponry.  Besides, I need to reserve what little time I let them watch tv during the summer for when I really need it.

And I will not push my children in a double stroller.  They're too big and it blows and I simply refuse to do it again.

And I will not slow my pace so Camryn can keep up on her bike.  In theory, it was a perfect plan...I run while the kids pedal happily beside me for miles and miles.  In reality (and despite pedaling as fast as her skinny little legs would go), Camryn fell far behind in the first 1/4 mile (luckily Ryan was along for that ride).  Sorry kid, but Mama's gotta do work.  Brynn did a great job staying with me for 3 miles, but my runs are getting longer each week.  With any luck, I'll be feeling good enough to pick up the pace before the end of summer, and I'm not sure Brynn will be able to (safely) keep up.  This was so much fun though:

So I think in order to hold on to any trace of sanity I may have left, I'm gonna have to make like Elsa and let it go.  I have to make my runs and my legs and core strengthening my top priorities, and if I manage to squeeze in some other workouts during the week, bonus.  

Speaking of my sanity, it got a little bit of a boost last week.  With both kids in karate camp all day every day, I got a nice little break from wearing all the hats I wear when they're home.  And the fact that they absolutely loved it was icing on the cake.  

Brynn and her bo staff

Camryn practicing her figure 8s

And to make the week even more fantabulous, we got a visit from my #1 from Thursday through Monday.  It had been almost a year since Dayna and I had been in the same room, which is probably the longest time apart in our 18 year friendship.  It's been a hell of a year for both of us, and it was so great to have her here and not skip a beat.  We even got to spend a few hours on the beach with no husbands or kids to demand our attention.  Brilliant, I tell you. 

Dayna and I also saddled up on the beach cruisers and rode up to the amphitheater to catch DMB in concert for the umpteenth time.  It was my birthday gift from Kevin, Meghan, and Jude, and two of the three came to the show with us:

Going to a Dave show has a sort of timelessness about it.  I've gone to his concerts at so many different stages of my life, and the more my fellow concert goers change, the more Dave stays the same.  There were people like us, of course, but there were people a decade or two older, sitting in beach chairs and sipping overpriced concert wine.  There were preppy college guys, which has always been the norm at a Dave show.  There were small children, along for the ride with their Dave-loving parents.  But then there was this new breed of fans (for lack of a better word).  Dozens of young girls (and by young I mean late teens, maybe young 20s, which only makes me very, very old because I'm calling them young) with long, flowy skirts, tie dye shirts, and flower wreaths in their perfectly Pinterested wavy hair.  They looked like hippies, only high maintenance instead of just plain high.  But as always, Dave and the gang put on a great show, sure to please the hippie in us all (although I don't recall seeing the Pinterest hippies singing along to Dave's rendition of "Slip Sliding Away").  And to time stamp the photo for future reference, Kevin and I made duck faces:

  Dayna didn't get the memo and just looks cute.

The rest of Dayna's visit was just perfect.  It is always so great to have her here, and Camryn was beside herself after she left Monday night.  "I [sob] just [sob] really [sob] miss [sob] Dayna!"  

Me too, kid.

So I'm giving myself a pep talk to get through the rest of the summer without stressing out over what I'm not doing, but instead enjoying what I actually am doing.  I'm logging many miles on bikes with my little ladies and trying to catch up with friends while we still have long days to fill with fun.  We're reading lots of books and forgetting to record them all on our reading logs.  We're going to beaches and pools and parks and going through gallons of sunscreen.  We're living it up Psimas-style, as we know all too well that the summer is slip sliding away.

Just eat it

Today has been full of Plan B's.  None of the contraceptive variety either, thank you very much.  A few examples:

Plan A1:  Wake up and do P90X2's Recovery and Mobility workout with Ryan.

Plan B1:  Sleep in.  Hell, the kids are in camp, I can workout later!

Plan A2:  Finally take the SUP yoga class I've been wanting to do since last summer.

Plan B2:  Rollerblade at the oceanfront (never heard back from the yoga people as to whether there was room for me today).

Plan A3:  Skate the length of the boardwalk and back with speed and grace.

Plan B3:  Managed the former, not so much the latter.

Plan A4:  Follow along with Tony Horton for P90X2's Total Body workout since I don't want to skip it for tomorrow's run and don't feel like making time to do both.

Plan B4:  Thanks to a perfectly timed power outage, I completed the workout sans Tony (and a/c and fans in my sauna of a room over the garage!) but with Salt n Pepa, Outkast, and Biz Markie.

Four Plan B's, all before 11am.  Hoping I can stick with Plan A for the rest of the day.  

This morning was pretty hot and sticky, but there wasn't too much wind to speak of, making it an ideal day for me to rollerblade at the oceanfront (that and not having any children to push in a stroller!).  I headed up there after dropping the girls off at camp and my nephew off at home.  The plan was to finish by 10 and avoid either pumping quarters in the meter or getting a parking ticket (that plan went off without a hitch...winning!).  There was a crap load of people out and about - feeding seagulls, riding bikes in places that aren't the bike path, meandering about with no regard to who might be zooming up beside them as they veer across the boardwalk - typical July in Virginia Beach kinda stuff.  Tourist traffic is always particularly busy by the Hilton, as people are always crossing back and forth to get the coveted picture with the King Neptune statue.  As luck would have it, this is the precise location I would pick up a piece of mulch in my right skate.  What happened next can be illustrated using a simple math equation:

THIS

PLUS THIS

EQUALS THIS*

*This picture of me prone on the sandy boardwalk is a reenactment for dramatic purposes. 

 The lovely bikini-clad girl who was recruiting potential surf camp victims customers was kind enough to take the picture for me.  She was also sweet enough to ask if I was ok after I explained why I needed said picture of me sprawled out on the ground, which is more than I can say for all of those tourists who actually witnessed me skid along the boardwalk.  See if I offer to take a family picture for all you Ohioans, Pennsylvanians, and Quebecois ever again!!!  Your disregard for a fellow human's well being makes me long for September when you inconsiderate people are all back home in your La-Z-Boys (I'm totally and completely fine, by the way).  

[steps off soap box]

Once I removed the culprit of shredded tree remains out of my skate, I managed to finish what I had set out to do.  Due to the tourist traffic, the sand on the boardwalk, and my spill (why didn't I think to pause Map My Run???), my time wasn't one for the record books.  It felt great to get out there again though, as I haven't skated in about a month.  Another reason to look forward to September!

I got home and decided I'd do Total Body instead of Recovery and Mobility...I have to get another 25 minute run in tomorrow, and I think early morning before the girls get up is my best window of opportunity.  I popped the DVD in, turned on my industrial fan to help with the heat, and started warming up with Tony, Dreya, and the gang.  Then zap.  Power goes out.  And stays out.  Ugh.  

I didn't really need to have the tv on since I had the worksheet with all of the exercises to go off of, but good god did I miss my fans!!!  Drenched is a gross understatement of the condition of my body and clothing when I was done.  But it was a fun workout, and getting it done in less than ideal temperatures only makes me hold my head a little higher.  Here are a few reasons I love this workout so much:

Pull ups with four different hand grips, not to mention the ones called "crunchy levers" - YOWZAS!

Bicep curls and tricep kick backs in Warrior 3 stance

Overhead press in half chair stance

Clearly, they don't call it Total Body for nothing!  I cannot say enough good things about the P90X programs.  They are incredibly well rounded, addressing strength, balance, power, and flexibility.  Tony's instruction is superb, with ways to modify each and every move for those just starting their exercise journey to those who need a substantial challenge to maintain fitness.  Worth every penny.  And wouldn't you know, the power came back on the minute I finished my workout and went downstairs?!

Yesterday's 25 minute run was a success...pain free and I felt strong from start to finish.  I managed to get in a hair over 3 miles, along with some squats and lunges while waiting for my friend to finish her speed work.  I hope tomorrow is more of the same - pain free miles that bring the smiles!

It's oh so quiet...

The girls are in camp.  All day.  All week.  Holy shit.  We're talking 40 hours of being able to focus on one thing at a time, like wandering around Target for an hour and a half this morning, without having to say "no, we cannot get that" every 26 seconds.  I can have uninterrupted adult conversations if I feel so inclined.  Or I can spend the day in absolute solitary silence if I want to.  I can buy and eat candy without sharing (wouldn't be the first time).  I do miss my children and wonder how they're enjoying their camp, but I am really enjoying having a little room to breathe (and blog) right now.  

We were back down in the Outer Banks last week for another one of the monthly long weekends Ryan took off of work this summer.  Things were a little up in the air the week before we went because our beloved spot on the sound was working around the clock to clean up after Hurricane Arthur barreled through, but they were able to reopen right in time for our scheduled visit.  Those Outer Banks folks are some of the toughest and most resilient people on the planet...the campground was under almost four feet of water a week before we got there, but we arrived to find it just the way we left it last month, only with fresh sod down in every campsite.  After seeing what a weak hurricane can do down there, I feel like we need to treat every trip down NC-12 like it could be our last, which is exactly what we did last week.  

We didn't do anything earth shattering, but here are some pics of this month's adventures in Rodanthe:

A few more shots to add to my overflowing "Sunsets on the Sound" photo album 

 Not a bad place to call home for a few days

Brynn's toy snake accompanied us on all of our paddle board adventures 

 Beachy version of Pennycan

These girls surfed and surfed and surfed.  I love how Camryn sticks out her tongue when she's concentrating.

Like a boss.

We visited the Cape Hatteras lighthouse one day while we were down there, and I just couldn't get enough of that place.  The lighthouse has such a fascinating history, and I love that my girls and I got to climb to the top for the first time together.  

 The owner of the campground was so kind to the kids, especially Brynn, who honestly believed she was an employee.  She didn't even get fired for sleeping on the job.

Camryn learned how to play War with cards.  Now she thinks a deck of cards is simply called War.

 Our last full day there was insanely windy.  Winds were out of the south, so the entire right side of my body was completely sandblasted after a few hours on the beach.  Really made me look forward to my shower with a view:

I completed one out of my three 20 minute runs while we were on vacation, and enjoyed it without the fuss of carrying my phone with me.  I didn't care about pace and just soaked up every bit of heat and humidity Hatteras Island had to offer.  It was kind of nuts seeing the piles of debris and seaweed that Hurricane Arthur deposited anywhere and everywhere he felt like it.  This was my first outing with no walk breaks, and I'm really pleased with how it went.  Without the walking, I feel like I'm finally started to shed the "injured runner" status and go back to being just a runner.  

My second 20 minute run was when we got home from vacation.  I needed some time alone after all that family fun, and I didn't think I had it in me to get up for a sunrise session the next day, so I laced up despite the rain showers that were moving through.  See???  I'm still a runner!!!  That run felt incredible, with splits of 8:06 and 7:39 for the first two miles, and 7:06 for the last 0.6.  Seeing low 8s was really exciting at first, but I can hardly contain my glee seeing low 7s, even if it's not very far.  

Low 7s were nowhere in sight for my third and final 20 minute run, as I was tasked with pushing the equivalent of about 90% of my body weight in the form of two little blondes and their teddies:

Ridiculous.  My BOB is the model with the fixed front wheel, meaning you have to push down on the handle bar and tilt it back to get the front wheel up to make turns.  And since I'm too short to get any sort of leverage using just my arms, I found myself  practically in a full front support on the handle bar just to lift the dang thing.  A 20 minute run turned into a total body workout, and that was fine by me.  It could very well have been the girls' last voyage in the BOB together, as my plan is to convince them to ride bikes alongside me when I run now.  

This week calls for a 25 minute run, and I love that I'm inching ever closer to 30 straight minutes of running.  I feel like getting to 30 and then going beyond will be such a huge turning point in this process.  I continue to work on strengthening my hips, and I frequently pamper my lower body with the foam roller.  Having to do all of this extra work is time consuming and irritating, but it's a necessary evil if I plan to keep this running thing in my life for the next few decades.  25 minutes or bust!

  

Walking on sunshine

I can't believe the day is almost here.  Just one more run with a walk break left to do this week, then next week I get to graduate to a 20 minute run.  That's it.  Just run for 20 straight minutes.  No walking.  



I feel like a kid whose training wheels are about to come off her two wheeler.  


Oh, the things you find on Pinterest when you search "training wheels."

I look forward to the freedom of just running, but in the meantime, I'll savor these one minute breathers while I still have them.  I've completed two sessions with two 15 minute running intervals each, and both felt good.  I had some tightness in my hip going into the first run, which hung around until just after my first walk break, but it was smooth sailing after that.  Yesterday's run felt as good as it gets.  As I've said before, I think my knee just loooooves it some heat and humidity.  My paces are showing some consistency, with a warm up in the 8:30-8:45 range, and my last mile coming in under 8 minutes.  This really gives me hope that the speed I worked so hard to gain last year will make its way back in time for the fall race season.  

As for that fall race season, I have yet to commit to any race other than the Wicked 10K (only because I signed up for it before I was injured).  I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to run a 10K no problem by the end of October, and I'm putting no pressure on myself to PR that race.  There are several races throughout the fall that I have my eye on, but I'll hold off on signing up until I get a better idea of how this knee will react to some regular, non-rehab running.  I've got some big goals for myself, but I don't want to set myself up for failure (or re-injury!!!) by going for it before I'm ready.  

As for now, I continue to work on my #1 goal of getting healthy.  I can't believe that almost five months later, this stupid IT band is still all consuming.  And I really can't believe that despite dealing with this issue for so long, I still haven't completely ruled out running another marathon.  Not anytime soon, but someday.  I wasn't fully aware of it at the time of the Shamrock, but I ran that race with a pretty significant injury, and I finished it in a respectable time (for a rookie).  My screwy little brain can't help but wonder what I would be capable of if I had the opportunity to run a marathon at 100%.  I must officially be a runner if this is how my brain works now.  

So I keep those crazy thoughts way in the back of my mind, safely stored to ponder another day.  My #2 goal for this summer has been to be more social with my running, and I have made great progress.  I did that J&A Racing group run back on National Running Day in June, and I have since made two new running friends whom I really enjoy (Kristy at Breath of Sunshine and Sara, who just started blogging at RunLifeRunLove).  It's a bit of a leap out of my comfort zone to reach out and ask people to join me on a run, but I'm so glad I have.  And I've realized that the worst thing that can happen is they say they can't (or simply don't want to).  It doesn't mean I can't run.  I means I get to run by myself!  Can't lose.  It can only be a good thing to have more people in my life who get this weird little runner mentality I've developed over the years.  Who other than a runner could I have this conversation with?

Is it supposed to be raining tomorrow morning? You still running?

It says chance of thunderstorms in the morning. I'll do rain, not lightning though! Looks like it'll be a game time decision...I'll check the radar when I wake up. Want me to pm or text you?

Yeah text me. I'll go if you go....

Awesome. You should hear from me either way around 5:15.

Yes, that 5:15 was referring to am, not pm.  So while I have my established small circle of friends who understand the regular crazy, I'm now making some room for a few more who understand the runner crazy.  

Bounce with me

As I sit here waiting for Hurricane Arthur (as in Bea?  Cuz it should be.) to arrive, I would like to share a public service announcement you won't get from Jim Cantore and the Weather Channel crew.  Sorry guys, but this one's for the ladies.  

Ladies.  Particularly the busty ones.  The sports bra industry has grown by leaps and bounds in the past decade.  Meaning they actually now make sports bras that can minimize how much you shake whatcha mama gave ya as you leap and bound.  And run.  Particularly run.  Buy them.  Wear them.  Your life will be forever changed.  Promise.  

I, myself, had some huge knockers when I was younger.  I hated them.  They were oversized for my 5 foot frame, uncomfortable, and completely distracting to myself and most likely those around me.  When I was pregnant and nursing, they reached porn star proportions.  Of course Mr. Fancy loved it, but I was not particularly fond of peeling off not one but TWO sports bras, sometimes feeling as though my shoulders would dislocate trying to Houdini my way out.  

I don't remember exactly when it happened, but at some point, I stumbled across a new brand of sports bras called Moving Comfort.  It sounded too cheesy to be true, but I tried one on and brought my milkshake to the yard right there in the dressing room.  Ya gotta give it the bounce test!  The first style I fell in love with was the Fiona.  

The shoulder straps are slightly padded and are adjustable with velcro, not those stupid plastic thingamabobs that dig into your shoulders.  It closes in the back like a regular bra, so no more acts of contortion to get it on and off.  It comes in bra sizes, none of that small, medium, and large bullshit.  It'll run you about $50 and is worth every cent.  My first Fiona was a D cup, and I had to go up to a DD when I was pregnant with and nursing Camryn.  Much to my surprise, this bra held those watermelons high and tight, and I ran comfortably without feeling the need to hold them lest I get two black eyes.  

When I started increasing my mileage and doing P90X regularly, my body changed dramatically, especially in the breastular region.  I no longer had these huge...tracks of land...rather what I referred to as 5 lbs. of potatoes in a 10 lbs. bag.  I was slimmer all over, and I no longer wanted to hide my body behind the big, baggy t-shirts I had been wearing since my big fat college days.  I thought the racer back style tank was flattering for my broad gymnast shoulders, but not so much when I was stuck wearing Fiona underneath.  And even though the chesticles are considerably smaller than they were when I started running, I still don't enjoy the feeling of them bouncing around in my shirt when I haul ass down the street.  Luckily, Moving Comfort now makes their magical undergarments in a racer back as well.  I'm particularly fond of the Rebound Racer (even though I think using the word "rebound" in a sports bra name is rather amusing), and I just bought myself another one with some of the money I got for my birthday.

The RR has everything I love about the Fiona, except with the slightly more stylish look of the racer back.  And now it comes in this cute gray and yellow color combo, so it will probably look pretty longer than my white one did.  I'm in love.

So the takeaway here is that running can do amazing things for your body.  Some of us just don't want to watch those amazing things happening in real time.  The excuse that you can't run because your boobs are too big is no longer valid.  Grab one of these bras (after the bounce test in the dressing room, of course) and get out there.

Now that that's off my chest (ha ha...chest...I kill me), let's talk about today's run.  It was sucktastically wonderful.  I woke up and did my ITB rehab exercises in my bedroom (this time on both legs as a preventive maintenance effort for the right leg), then walked out the door and into the brick wall of 80 degrees and 84% humidity.  Blech!  I ran one of my regular routes for the first time in months, which really has me feeling like this is for real.  The first two miles were into the wind, which provided a little relief from the humidity, but made it a little tougher to run.  Coming out of the wind for the second half of the run, I was able to pick up the pace a little, but it was at the expense of my heart and lungs, which were on fire by the time I hit 3 miles.  My knee was like butter in this heat, and feeling good made me want to push it a little for the last bit of the run.  Turns out that little push was a 7:27 min/mile pace for .73 miles!  Oh happy day!!!  

I've got one more session of 10 minutes running/1 minute walking left before jumping up to 15 minutes running/1 minute walking, which would be my last week of taking walk breaks.  This point seemed so far away when I first started, but it seems to have gone by quickly.  By August, I should be running 30-35 minutes non-stop, and hopefully by September, I'll be ready for some speed work.  Perfect timing for when Mother Nature flips off the humidity switch and the crowds on the boardwalk go back to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Quebec, or wherever they're from.  

Greatest bumper sticker in the city

Perfect 10

Well hello, July!  June ended on such a high note, basically celebrating my birthday all weekend long.  I'm happy to be running again, and it's really exciting to wonder where I'll be a month from now.  My return-to-running program called for 10 minutes running/1 minute walking x 3 yesterday, and I was up before the sun to get to work.  I wasn't sure how I'd feel or what to expect...would I be looking at my watch every minute?  Would I be wishing the program had gone from 5 minutes of running to 6 or 7 instead of jumping to 10?

Turns out I was making myself nervous for no good reason.  The first time I glanced at my watch, 9:38 had passed and I felt great.  My plan was to run half of the second interval then turn around, but I've had a history of getting progressively faster as I go, so I decided to just keep going to the King Neptune statue before making a u-turn.  The rest of my run was uneventful, which is exactly how I want it to be right now.  

It seems as though my knee (and the rest of my legs, for that matter) is holding up well and is able to handle the increased demands I'm placing on it each week.  My lungs, however, have some catching up to do!  At first I was a little disappointed to see my average pace for these miles.  I pushed it a little for probably the last mile and a half while still feeling like it would be considered the easy pace it's supposed to be, and I didn't feel like my average reflected that.  I wasn't beating myself up about it, but it kinda sucked thinking about how much work I still have ahead of me to get back to where I was pre-ITBS (which should just stand for iliotibial bullshit, if you want my honest opinion).  But last night I looked at my splits on Map My Run and was pleasantly surprised.  I ran a total of 3.73 miles, and the pace of that last .73 was 1:02 min/mile faster than my first mile.  This was just the mental lift I needed going into my next workout.  I'm keeping an eye on the weather, and wondering how Awful Arthur, the tropical storm that's currently brewing off the coast of Florida, will impact Thursday's run (not to mention Friday's plans for the beach and 4th of July fireworks!).  I've had so many picture perfect sunrise runs lately, so I guess Mother Nature thinks it's time for a change of scenery!