Drop the Donut! My Troubles With Weight.

If you recall, one of my main reasons for starting to run was weight. It wasn't my top reason but it's still something rather important for me. I will start off by saying I realize I'm not obese, and I'm probably only just barely overweight by the BMI chart. However, I do have some jiggle and squishie bits, and I sure would love to fit back into some of those clothes still waiting patiently in my closet.

When did this battle start? Like most people I can probably blame college for that. Back when I met my husband Aaron in 2009, I weighed about 135. That's why it's always my "get back to" weight. I considered myself an adult then, I don't aim for a teenage body and I still had enough curves that I was pleased.

Me in summer of 2009. Aw look the pasty girl got a sunburn at the beach... imagine.

After this picture was taken I still had two years of graphic design program to get through. If any of you know art school in general, you know this means late nights, no sleep, terrible food, no time for anything but art...

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Why yes, I did just spend 2 hours going thru Art Student Owl Tumbr. That owl kicks butt. Anyway, not the healthiest life choices made in that time. I did try to be healthy at some point by eating whole bags of Dole Salad Kits for lunches... Mmm hmm. Well needless to say during my time in the graphic design program my 135 lbs eventually became 164 lbs. I don't think I even really realized it until first, I could find no fancy clothes to wear to our mock portfolio reviews. Second, when I saw this picture.

That's me on the left, spring 2011.

The sad thing is, I suppose, that when I left the house that morning I remember I thought I looked really cute. Not after I saw this picture. The picture was taken at my friends bridal shower. She got married in April that year and my wedding was to be in August. After that picture was posted I knew I had to do something, and quick!

I believe I tried working out first. Joined a gym but that was short lived. I fell back on a soup diet. All canned soup all the time, and when my stomach protested too much I would snack on 100 calories worth of sourdough pretzel nuggets. I was not a happy camper but I got down to 151 before the wedding.

Defend the dress! Photo by The Wiebners

It wasn't perfect but I was happy I'd dropped 13 lbs. I was able to maintain that weight for a good two years until my husband and I moved into our own house. I went up to 157. I decided that wasn't good and got an app called MyFitnessPal. I really like this app. I counted calories very diligently for a while and was able to get down to about 146 before Halloween last year. Yay! ... Then I guess the holidays happened and before I knew it I was right back to 157. That's when Billie asked me to run with her and as I was pretty tired of calorie counting I figured that would be a good method to lose weight.

Nope. Lost nothing. In fact I went up. 157. 158. 159.... I was like no no no I know I could be gaining muscle but no! Nothing fits better! I tried to eat healthier. Veggies, fruits, smoothies made of almond milk, frozen fruit, greek yogurt and spinach... 160, 161, 162... No no no! I felt like a toddler most mornings yelling at my scale.

Finally I thought I'd give Focus T25 a try. I actually enjoyed it. I got some muscles sore, I got my heart rate up, I felt like I was doing good for my body... but after 3 weeks I saw no results at all scale and clothing wise and was just plain EXHAUSTED all the time. I decided to quit the T25 until I was finished training for the half marathon. I feel like running out in the heat and then coming home to push myself with T25 was just draining all the energy I had.

Around the beginning of June I hit 164 again. I was not ok with that. Billie suggested a diet to me which is basically healthy eating. Eat veggies, fruits, nuts for snacks. Don't eat much/any wheat products. Eat lean meat such as fish and chicken with a fibrous carb... like rice? Or beans? I am not sure what counts as what, but I know I had a lot of chicken and rice at first. I completely cut out Diet Coke from my diet which makes me a very sad panda. It's been my drink of choice since I can remember. Just talking about it now makes me want some of its caffeinated goodness. Sigh. First week, no loss. Then second week, suddenly I was 158.9. Oh gosh, yay, under 160! ... I stayed at exactly 158.9 for a week. How can I be EXACTLY .9 for a week?? Lies. That scale lies. After the second week I cheated on a Friday. I ate a cheese steak wrap and fries, and a hot dog and a cookie. Not all at once mind you, but all in one day. So much diet cheating. Saturday I was still 158.9 but then Sunday? 157.8! WOO HOO! .... And stayed exactly there for 2 weeks. So much eating good food. Such lame. Much sad. By the end of the 4th week of eating really well I was getting pretty annoyed by the slowwwww loss and decided to get a bag of Doritos. I had maybe 20? The scale went back up to 159.2. What the.... Dude. Eating 20 chips does not equal over a lb of weight. Well the day after that I was 160 again. AUGH. What?

So that's where I am currently. Cheat one time, lose almost 2 lbs. Cheat a second time, gain 3 lbs. Don't quote me on that math, I'm very math deficient. I've been 159 the past 2 days and I'm hoping that now that I'm more or less injury free (knock on wood!) and able to really train for this half marathon, I'll start losing again. Good diet and exercise, that should lose me some weight, right? .... Right?

Anyway I leave you with more Art Student Owl because he's awesome.

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Running in Intervals: A Trial

It has been a week and a day since my last attempt at running. My blisters are healed up to annoying calluses, my hip/thigh/'whatever the doctor has decided is giving me pain' hasn't hurt or even irritated me since Monday's doctor appointment and I've been dying to try out a true run with intervals.

I was reading over at Sparkly Runner all about how she's been training the Jeff Galloway method. I believe at the time of the post I read she was running a 30:30 interval - running 30 seconds and walking 30 seconds.

I've already learned that at least for now, there's no way I'm running a race straight through. I have to take walk breaks anyway, so I may as well try 30:30, right? What do I have to lose? We shouldn't feel bad walking, according to Galloway. A couple of the draws for me, which he lists on his website, include "less stress on 'weak links'" and heaven knows I have plenty of those, and "reduce core body temperature" which seems like a good thing in this summer heat. Walk breaks "speed you up an average of 7 minutes faster in a 13.1 mile race." They "erase fatigue" and "push back your wall of exhaustion." They "reduce the chance of aches, pain and injury" and "speed recovery." None of this sounds bad to me!

I got myself home after work tonight and laced up the shoes. There wasn't going to be much daylight left so I decided on my 3.1 mile route. I opened up my intervals app, so creatively named "Intervals" and set it for 30:30. I then set up my music and started walking to sync my GPS watch.

And there were no pings or dings alerting me to switch. I believe my phone had been buzzing to alert me when it hit 30 seconds, but I never felt it at a slow walk, I'd certainly never feel it at a run. The app is SO SIMPLE that I don't think I missed how to make it alert me while it's not the active program but given the amount of daylight I had left, I decided just to count it out in my head. For the next 46 minutes all I thought about was 1, 2, 3, 4.....

It's possible I could have sped up and slowed down how quickly I was counting, I'm not really certain. And a couple of times I got so distracted also trying to think other things that I found myself into the 40's before I remembered to switch. But overall I kept to the 30:30 schedule.

My verdict? I'm a bit disappointed. Now, it could be because I haven't run in a week. It could be because 3.1 isn't that much to judge by. It could be because I was counting it all out in my head - but my time didn't impress me. It was much better than other runs this month but overall I'm not proud to say it took me 46:50 to go 3.1 miles. My average pace was 15'04". I did have a negative split for the second mile which was cool, but the last mile was back into the 15 minute mile range. Blast!

In addition to the time, I'm also discouraged over my hip/thigh. Once again it started to bother me about half way through my run, though I haven't had a chance tonight to take the Mobic the doctor prescribed me. Perhaps next time, but I didn't want to take it on an empty stomach and I certainly didn't want to eat prior to running.

So the app let me down, I didn't like the time I made, and my hip started hurting. BUT! I did like this method. I felt less wiped out, I didn't get nearly as out of breath as usual and my calves didn't tighten up the way they're prone to. And! I even ran up some hills! Oh my! So I will definitely be attempting this method again.

Less stress on the “weak links”

Principles behind Run Walk Run:

• Continuous use of a muscle will result in quicker fatigue
• The longer the run segment, the more fatigue
• Run Walk Run is a form of interval training
• Conservation of resources
• Quicker recovery
• Less stress on the “weak links”
• Ability to enjoy endorphins
• Reduce core body temperature
- See more at: http://www.jeffgalloway.com/training/run-walk/#sthash.ziXh1v8x.dpuf

• Speed you up: an average of 7 minutes faster in a 13.1 mile race when non-stop runners
shift to the correct Run Walk Run ratio – and more than 13 minutes faster in the marathon
• Give you control over the way you feel during and after
• Erase fatigue
• Push back your wall of exhaustion or soreness
• Allow for endorphins to collect during each walk break
• Break up the distance into manageable units
• Speed recovery
• Reduce the chance of aches, pains and injury
• Allow older or heavier runners to recover fast, and feel as good as in the younger (slimmer) days
• Activate the frontal lobe – maintaining your control over attitude and motivation
- See more at: http://www.jeffgalloway.com/training/run-walk/#sthash.bG9wiOlY.dpuf

• Speed you up: an average of 7 minutes faster in a 13.1 mile race when non-stop runners
shift to the correct Run Walk Run ratio – and more than 13 minutes faster in the marathon
• Give you control over the way you feel during and after
• Erase fatigue
• Push back your wall of exhaustion or soreness
• Allow for endorphins to collect during each walk break
• Break up the distance into manageable units
• Speed recovery
• Reduce the chance of aches, pains and injury
• Allow older or heavier runners to recover fast, and feel as good as in the younger (slimmer) days
• Activate the frontal lobe – maintaining your control over attitude and motivation
- See more at: http://www.jeffgalloway.com/training/run-walk/#sthash.bG9wiOlY.dpuf

We're Off To See The Doctor!

So after a spring and early summer filled with ooches and ouches, I finally went for a visit with the doctor today. My original reason was to get a referral for physical therapy, but I was hopeful that this doctor could tell me what I'm doing wrong without making more visits.

The short answer? Nope.

My mom accompanied me on this visit. I prefer to have company. Someone to talk to while I wait, ask questions I don't think of, and remember what they tell me. She's never objected so I keep asking her along.

The nurse who checked us in added an inch to my height. I've been 5'4" for as long as I can remember - where'd that extra inch come from? Must be all the chiropractor visits. She asked me a bunch of questions and took my pulse (84) and blood pressure (124/74). They also calculated my BMI (Body Mass Index) to be 26.63. In case you aren't too familiar (and I had to look it up myself) that puts me in the overweight range. Peachy. I've been there for a while now but every time I hear it I get a bit angry with it. One day I'll be back in their normal range! Here is a handy dandy BMI calculator if you're interested in that, but I warn you, just like a number on a scale you can become obsessed with your BMI. Are you active? Are you healthy? Then keep working towards your goal and don't look at the number.

When the doctor came in she asked if I was having trouble with my knee. Nope, that was March. I explained that I was there mostly for a referral but hoped she could give me some answers. I told her my most recent pain was the thigh/groin so she focused her attention on that. She asked me when it hurts most (Getting out of the car, and mornings, it's like I walk into work like Frankenstein!), if it stops hurting after it's had a good warm up (more or less, except for last Saturday when it felt like grinding), she asked if I stretch good before my runs (I do). She also asked how often/far I run. I tried to give a good estimate but with the injuries it's hard to do. Eventually we settled on "I run 3 miles Saturday and 6 miles Sunday" - she told me to spread out the runs a little better. Maybe take 3 days in between each run, and add only 10% distance each time. She said, "That means if you usually run 5 blocks, run 6 blocks the next time."

She had me push against her with either leg, she moved my leg around and asked, "Does this hurt?" No. "Does this hurt?" Nope.... My injuries come and go and currently, while I can notice a discomfort in my thigh it's really not a pain at all. I did my best to describe this and added that most of my trouble had been lifting the leg/getting it to move out of the car.

My mom pointed out the healing blisters on my feet. Oops, I'd forgotten about those! The doctor asked about my shoes which I had thoughtfully brought along. I attempted to explain that I have two pairs and switch off between them but she was busy telling me that my pink Transcendence, the pair she picked up first, are probably worn out. I've been running since February, yes, but not that much a week, and not always in the same shoe. For the first few weeks I had New Balance shoes that I'd dug out of the closet... I think the Transcendence are ok for a little while. I don't believe Nike has them tallied to even 100 miles yet. She also said something about socks (Which I can't remember so let's pretend she asked, "Do you wear socks?") and I mentioned I'd tried all sorts of socks trying to find something that won't lead to a blister. She didn't suggest anything new there either.

In the end her recommendation was, "I think physical therapy is a good idea." .... Sigh. Me too. She prescribed an anti-inflammatory, Mobic (Meloxicam) that I'm to take once a day for a week, and after that only as needed. As she was searching for stretches in her computer database to print out for me, a thought occurred. She never actually said what she thought was wrong with the leg. "Did I sprain it or something?" "Yes, you seem to have," she responded. Sigh again. The brief I received on the way out states "Hip Sprain, Right, Initial encounter." Well ok then.

At least it's not a femoral neck stress fracture, right?

Race Day: Superhero 5K 2014

Yay another race!

Our second ever race was the Superhero 5K on June 21st in Landisville, PA. The race was to benefit CASA:

CASA is a non-profit organization that provides court appointed volunteer advocacy for abused and neglected children with a belief that all children deserve safe, nurturing, and permanent homes.

The morning started out rather rainy, though we could see blue skies off in the distance. Costumes were encouraged so Billie and I decided to dress up as Super Rainbow Dash and Super Fluttershy. Yep. We're Bronies. Or is that Pegasister? I don't know, we like My Little Pony and we're not afraid to say it! But we aren't on a creeper level, promise. It's just really cute. 

Billie on the way in her cute wig (she made herself!) and goggles.

Our second 5K! We're not nervous at all...

Billie's husband Brian came along to this race and my husband Aaron met us there minutes before we had to line up. Again I didn't get to do much stretching but I tried my best without being "that obnoxious person stretching in line." I was determined to run slow so that I could run longer but it didn't really work out that way. We made one lap around the high school track and by the end of it I wanted to walk SO BAD. Then it was out into the town.We had our fastest mile yet, 13'54". Whee! I kept trying to run/walk like usual and Billie kept up no problem. Actually, it was me that was falling behind. She was nice though and stopped/started running when I did. Around the half way point the rain made its comeback as well. It really wasn't a downpour but we ended up pretty wet. The second mile was 15'30". The third was 14'36". Around 2.5 miles Aaron appeared with his camera and took some shots for us. 

Waving to Aaron. I was so happy to have him there for support!

Our costumes from the back.

Once we were almost back to the high school track again Brian found us and took some photos of his own. 

Billie saying, "Come on Steph, we're almost there!"

And then I was done. Yes, I walked to the finish.

Billie kept trying to push me to run. Run run run! Run to the finish! I was proud of her progress but I just couldn't make it! After running up the street, up the track, I just had no more left. In fact I was half certain I'd throw up, so I stopped and walked. I did end up trotting/jogging across the finish line just to make a show of it but yeah nope. Billie kept turning around to encourage me on and I waved for her to finish. You get that record, Billie! GO BILLIE, GO! Per my Nike Sportwatch I finished the 5K in 46:15, about 4 minutes better than in Philly. Granted, in Philly I forgot to stop my watch so I believe it was closer to 3 minutes better, but that's still some improvement, and if I can keep up that pace for Disney I'll be golden! Nevermind that Disney will be 10 miles further than this race... 

We found a little Princess Celestia!

Superdog! Very well trained.

We finished our second 5K! YEAH!

Injury Report: Thigh? Groin?

This injury is the one that finally convinced me to see the doctor. I head to that appointment tomorrow.

It started... oh... a month ago? I'm actually not entirely sure when but I know it's hung on longer than any of the previous injuries (aside from blisters which come and go).

At first I believed it was just a stiff leg. Really? Running since February, injured here there and everywhere, and now I get the stiff muscles? I believe it was right after I started adding more distance to my weekend runs. It could have been caused by the added hills along my path.... who knows really!

Anyway the stiffness/pain seemed to be located around my Sartorius muscle. I tried to google some stretches that would be good for that and most of them scared me. It looks like I'll pop the leg out of the joint if I try! So for the most part I just ignored it, tried some really deep lunges prior to runs, and hoped for the best.

The best didn't come. The more I tried to run on it, the more if felt like my leg just didn't actually want to support me. I was partially afraid I'd fall into traffic if I ran out along the main road. Well that's no good! My weekly runs suffered thanks to the pain and fear of falling. Ironically this was right as my 20 week training schedule was starting, so I started out training behind in the milage. Oh dear... 3 miles instead of 5? 2 instead of 3? Sure why not. But the leg just wasn't getting any better. I decided well, every other injury seemed to get better if I just took a week off. I started skipping week day runs all together, which wasn't very hard to do considering how darn HOT it was those weeks.

It didn't let up. In fact, some mornings the stiffness seemed even worse than on mornings after I'd run. I didn't know what to do and pretty much just decided to run weekends until it stopped.

Last weekend was the final straw. I ran on Saturday... or rather, attempted to run for maybe the first mile, then walked the rest as my leg felt like it was grinding in my hip joint. This time it didn't feel like a generalized Sartorius area, it felt like exactly where thigh meets hip. I pointed to the spot for dad and he said "groin pull"... so it could be that maybe but I'm not sure? Anyway I made the mistake of googling (again, who needs professionals?) "groin pain running" and came up with an article which said the lady in it had a femoral neck stress fracture. Of course, I then had to google that and goodness, the pictures were disturbing! They are mainly all artist renderings of fractures, and in my mind I know that can't be what is wrong with me considering I'm not in extreme pain, but it still scared me enough to say ok you know what? That's enough. I'll go see the doctor. It took them a week to have an opening but I finally get to see her tomorrow. Woo!

I did run on Wednesday (see previous blog about the blisters!) and though we ran for maybe .45 of a mile (I told you I suck, that's a lot for me!) straight the thigh surprisingly didn't bother me too bad. I did notice it but it was nowhere near the grinding I felt on Saturday. It's been hard the last couple of days to notice anything other than the blister pain but I do still notice a faint stiff feeling when I get up and down, shift my weight or try and roll over in bed. So as much as I want the pain to stop, I'm glad it hasn't disappeared before I get to see the doctor about it.

Injury Report: Blisters

Blisters, you nasty little buggers.

I'm not entirely sure when my blister trouble started. I believe some time after the Philly Run Wild, hence this blogs placement. The majority of my blisters have been on the back of my right foot, on the heel. I've tried a lot to try and make them stop and so far nothing seems to be a permanent solution.

Bandages
I've tried every bandage I can think of - Water poof bandages, sports bandages, liquid bandages, hydrocolloid bandages... nothing stays put on my foot! By the end of the first mile (and sometimes sooner than that) the bandage has all but worked its way out of my sock. I keep putting them on there though in hopes one day they'll stick and keep me blister free.

Shoes
I thought MAYBE since everyone keeps saying "maybe it's the shoes" that maaaaaybe just maybe it could be the shoes. I got a second pair of running shoes to try / break in for my Disney race (and uh, these match my planned costume too). They're Brooks PureConnect 2. Brooks makes a 3 now but I got the 2 based on price and reviews. Again, who needs a professional, online shopping is good for shoes, right? Thankfully they seem to fit. They're a bit snug but actually I think they MAY be better for blister prevention. They still need a little breaking in and the balance is a little different in them than I'm used to, but I have heard that alternating between shoes can help with injury prevention.

Socks
I've tried a few different socks to try and keep my feet dry. My original socks were some generic athletic socks from Kmart. Acrylic I believe. Since those seemed to not work for me, I've moved on to try nylon, bamboo, polyester (Dr. Scholl's BlisterGuard socks) and as of yesterday I acquired some wool. I haven't gotten to try those out though, as I'm waiting on my current blisters to heal. Yeah, these last blisters were quite a doozy.

Billie and I went out on our trail on Wednesday. We planned to go 6 miles this night, which we did, though the majority of it turned into a walk rather than a run. Boo.

Happy to be outside in the sunshine after a long day in the office!

We followed our trail twice as it's only just barely 3 miles once around. After our first lap I could tell my feet weren't all that pleased but I wanted to keep going. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! By the time we got back after our 6th mile I knew my feet would be trouble. I de-shoed and de-socked before even getting back into my car. Oh hi there half dollar coin sized blisters! Woops.

Click to see all of its blistery goodness!

Sorry squeamish people, if anyone knows how to make that a link only I'll hide it... till then I made it super tiny so you can hopefully just overlook it if you choose.

I only included the left foot on here but it looks the same on both feet. Matching blisters. Sweeeet... and the white spot in the middle is a previous blister. I have blisters on my blisters! I am guessing that it was a compromised area to start with and that's how it ended up so bad after just 6 miles. I've been hobbling around since Wednesday but they're mostly ok to walk on now (Sunday). I've discovered I love Moleskin. I make little donuts of them and stick them around the blisters. It doesn't hurt quite as much with it on. In fact, I managed to walk practically normal last night (albeit rather slow) at an outdoor concert! Whee normal!

So that's the majority of my current problem. Obviously I can't run with half dollar coin sized blisters on the balls of my feet, so I'm taking some time off again. I go see a doctor tomorrow (yes, I finally gave in after 6 months) to see what she can tell me about my injuries. I'll keep you posted!

Race Day: Philly Run Wild 2014

After three blog posts about injuries, let's jump to something a little more fun, shall we?

Race day!

Billie and I ran our first ever 5K on April 27th, the Philly Run Wild at the Philadelphia Zoo. We got up bright and early to start out 1.5 hour drive down the turnpike. We got there with little issue (there were some wrong turns into scary neighborhoods but we made it!) and got our bibs. Our first bibs!

See how excited we are!

 Since I haven't been at this blog for long, I'll tell you that's me on the right. Billie gave me the pretty running tank I wore that day, it's rainbow parrots. Birdies! We entered the waiting area and got ready to run. Mostly we just paced around and peeked at the peacocks in the trees. This is where I mentioned before that nerves got to me and I never got around to stretching prior to my run. Oh dear... Once they told us to line up the road became very congested. The family behind us kept trying to take pictures which is all fine and good, who doesn't love a photo? But seriously man, if you're going to be all up in my business and invading my personal space then at least say excuse me... I don't mean usual crowded "invading my space" either. This guy was backing into us to get far away enough to take his picture without ever checking where he was going. Say excuse me and all is forgiven but he didn't even seem to care who or what was behind him. Sigh. Ancient history, I know, I'm over it, but please friends let's be polite to other runners!

Anyway the race started and I ran for the most continuous running streak I've done since running 4 minutes on the treadmill. Seriously outside running is much harder than treadmill running! We ran and panted and finally stopped for a walk break right before the Cheetah enclosure. The Cheetahs were up and about already that morning and one was dashing back and forth with the runners as they passed. Adorable! We didn't stop to take any photos of them though, as that would have required some yanking and pulling of phones out of their pouches. Need to make note of that for Disney, perhaps hold my phone or figure out some easier to access pouch. We ran as much as we could and walked when we couldn't run any more. At this time (meaning April) I had a little more endurance than Billie had, so I lead the way for most of our race and would occasionally peek behind me and encourage her to keep catching up. There are a deceptive amount of hills in the Philly Zoo! We weaved through the zoo and out along the road, back behind the zoo then back in the way we'd come. After we passed the Cheetahs again I realized my knee was starting to bother me. "No no no, I'm ignoring you!" I thought. Yeah, nope. We started running to cross the finish line and I had to stop and walk short of our goal. Billie pulled ahead to make sure she got a 5K record. I don't mind it, she did good! My finishing time per my Nike Sportwatch was 51:18, though I did forget to turn it off for a minute after we'd finished. "I finished a race! Didn't I have to do something now?"

Me showing off my bib again post race.

Billie post race. "Whew, we did it!"

Celebratory friendly post race shot.

They had some free massages for first come first serve. That creeped me out a little bit so we didn't do that. We did grab some of the free food though. I had a "Kind" bar, a little baggie of chips and some water. I had actually been hoping for a post race banana but I think all of the fast runners gobbled them up before we got there. 

See now this is where I have to tell you.... we came in something like 800th place. I forget exactly, I'm certain I could look it up if I really cared but I don't - it wasn't ever about which place we came in. It was about getting out there, running with a friend, and crossing the finish line. AND, we got to see cute animals to boot. So if you suck at running? Sign up for that 5K anyway. You can do it!

Here are some more pictures from the day.

Mr. Lion chilling in the morning sunshine.

Me feeding the Lorikeets.

Billie feeding the Lorikeets.

The view from Billie's phone in the above photo.

Rawr! One of my favorite Billie photos!

Injury Report: Heels

Welcome to April!

It was finally nice enough to try an outside run with Billie. We found a trail located only a few miles from work located at a museum and golf course. It was a little weather beaten from the snowy winter we'd had but for the most part the gravel seemed intact and was a nicer/softer running surface than a sidewalk. My knees were still holding up pretty decently, though I was still icing them to be safe.

After our first trail run I decided it was time I did the majority of my running outside and not on the treadmill. Once I hit the road I started noticing a new pain starting: heel pain. Not the bottom, mind you, as one might think since that's what strikes the ground first. Not the bottom and not the arch, as most heel pain was described on google. Again, doctors, who needs em? So I did the best I could to treat it blindly. I got braces again, this time ankle braces from the dollar store. Granted I didn't think these $1 braces would be doing much for support, I mostly used them to hold my ice packs in place. I took aspirin every 6 hours or so and hoped for the best. I posted this to facebook on April 9th.

I've been running since February 22nd. Recently 3 miles at least, 3 times a week. I've noticed I can run further, I've noticed my time shortening.... But I think since I started I've had maybe two pleasant runs without pain. First it was shin pain. Annoying but tolerable. Then it was knee pain. Debilitating post run but as long as I iced after I could deal, and taking a week off seemed to cure that. Well now, since I've been running outside, I have terrible heel pain just under the ankle bone. I am getting both discouraged and angry. Sore muscles I understand but joint pain? Nerves pinching? So pissed. So so pissed. Tried to alter how I land on my feet last night, figured maybe I was landing too much on my heel... Well now instead of just the left heel hurting the right one does too. Guess I'm taking a week off again. Bull cookies. Bull freakin cookies.

Friends commented that it must be the shoes. I haven't made a blog post about my gear yet, but I responded that I highly doubted shoes were the problem as I wear Brooks Transcend. (By the way, at some point since April they've gotten a new shoe color... drool.... wants it....) Matt posted this:

You might want to get the arches in your feet checked as well. I found that only certain manufactures make suitable running shoes for my low arches

But pfft stubborn me, why see a professional when I could just go on self diagnosing? In hindsight I probably should have done that, but taking time off cured me of the heel pain. What convinced me to take off a week this time?

Oh yeah. I'll be capturing all the Victorian gentlemen with this ankle. 

 

Yup. No idea what happened here. I guess the ankle was just like nope. Had enough. No more. Gross. And no, I should point out, the nail is not black and blue. That's just nail polish that I haven't bothered taking off since October. So I took a week off and thankfully, knock on wood again, that pain has not returned.

Injury Report: Knees

Knees. KNEEES. Please read that like Captain Kirk when he's yelling out KHAAAAN. That's about the level of frustration my knees have caused me.

Now, I really should have known knees would cause me trouble based on genetics. I distinctly remember when I was little, watching my paternal grandfather limp around on his notoriously bad knees. But noooo I'm young right? Only 28 (at the time of the injury at least)! No knee problems!

Ah, how naive. At this point I was still only running on moms treadmill, still no more than 4 minutes at a time but the runs as a whole being about 50 minutes long. I was also still not stretching prior to my runs. It's not that I didn't know I should - I'd just get so excited to hit that start button that I'd forget. Then the pain started. At first it would only appear after a run, and really not all that bad. It felt like pressure or water behind the knee cap or to the outside of the knee. Externally there was nothing to look at. Inside though the pressure wanted to drive my crazy.

I googled "running knee pain" rather than going to a doctor and asking about it. You'll see this is a reoccurring theme with me. The solutions I came up with included knee braces (one from Target and two from the dollar store), ice, rest, multivitamins, glucosamine and chondroitin supplements, and stretching. Ahhh stretching, I'm sorry I neglected you for so long! I dealt with achey, pressure filled knees for almost a month. It felt like soooo much longer! On March 2nd I posted the following to Facebook:

Slowly slowly slowly getting better at this running thing. Knees are finally starting to behave and allow me to run on schedule and Nike+ says my average time was 17'12"/mile tonight. Have to get that to 16'/mile for Disney but it's still good progress!

I sure wish that would have lasted. Instead I ran a week later and my left knee felt pretty bad, so I decided finally that I would take a week off from my training, let them heal up properly, then give it another go.

The best of intentions, let me tell you. The day after I decided to let my knees rest up I accidentally locked myself out of my house. None of the neighbors I knew were home and I'm not the most social creature so I decided instead of knocking on a strangers door I would walk to my chiropractors office and call my mom. Only a mile, I thought. Thankfully I still had my coat on since I'd just gotten home so I started walking. About half way to my destination I knew my knee wasn't going to like it, but as I'd dealt with the pain thus far I figured it would be fine once I got home and iced it. Eventually I made it to (somewhat ironically) a physical therapists office, as my chiropractor ended up being closed for the evening and I called my mom. She picked me up, let me back into my house, and I put on a brave face as she left while my knee felt like it wanted to detach itself from my body. Holy balls. It hurt. A lot. I cried, and then I took my week off from running.

As quickly as the knee pain started it seemed to disappear. After my week off from running I was nervous as heck to try again. The pain from the night I was locked out was all too clear in my memory. Surprisingly it didn't hurt. Since that week off my knee has only bothered me once since (knock on wood) and I blame that on being so caught up in the race environment that I forgot to stretch. WOOHOO! Two injuries down! How many to go?

Injury report: Shins

When I first started out I was following an app called 10K Pro. At some point previously it had been free and I downloaded it on a whim. It starts you out running three times a week, which I had scheduled to be Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturday or Sunday, depending on how my weekend was going. The first few weeks, being in February and March, it was much too cold for me to start running outside so I was confined to my moms treadmill in their sun room. It wasn't that terrible really, I set myself up with my iPad and watched My Little Pony or New Girl episodes while I listened to my app tell me when to walk and run. Soon though the app was doing better than me. I think the best I could do on the treadmill was run for 4 minutes straight, and only once per session. The app however kept going. Run for 5 minutes! Run for 8 minutes! .... Are you CRAZY? The app would tell me that my runs should take half an hour or 45 minutes, etc, but they'd end up taking me much longer than that. I was determined to RUN the time it told me to but I had to keep breaking up my run phases with walking breaks in between. I had read that run/walk is a method of Jeff Galloway's anyway so I wasn't too concerned. He's the official trainer of the RunDisney races. You can read more about him here.

These first few weeks of running, I had a bit of pain in my shins. It wasn't debilitating and I kept running through the pain. It was probably a usual soreness from legs that haven't run that much since I saw a skunk trotting towards me down the street one night on Halloween. SKREEEEE I shrieked and ran away the opposite direction, leaving my friend Sam to fend off the skunk on her own.

My solution to this pain was not to stretch, as I should have been doing anyway (and wasn't...), but to buy knee high compression socks. Darn those suckers are expensive! I happened to find some very cute, pink leopard spottened, Nike brand ones in my local Sports Authority. I happily bought them, even though the price seemed extreme to me, and when I got home and opened them up... what's this? They don't fit? How can that be, I got the large ones! They were compression sleeves... for arms. Oops. I kept them anyway, thinking they may come in useful one day when I start running outside. Thankfully this "injury" was short lived. The very next morning after I purchased these ahem, compression socks, my shins felt fine. Yahoo! But the bigger injury was soon to follow...

Let's Start at the Very Beginning...

A very good place to start! When you read you begin with...

Sorry I broke into song for a moment there. The beginning. February.

The initial inspiration for running was my friend Billie asking me to run a Disney World race with her. The original plan was to be the Tower of Terror 10 Miler but due to a scheduling conflict (which has since been resolved, thanks for that, universe...) we switched it up to the Wine and Dine half marathon. Once that had been decided I posted this to my facebook:

So... I've never been good at running. I get winded walking in to my desk from the parking lot at work. Anyone want to give me encouragement? Runners, how "bad" were you when you started? Is there any hope I can go from "couch to half marathon" before November?

I got a few responses, such as this from Caitlynne: 

It's not hard. Start for a month at planet fitness fast walking on the elliptical and build from there. When it gets nice out start jogging outside in short bursts for a couple minutes at a time but pace yourself so you don't feel like you're dying. After a while you'll notice you can breath still and go further and you'll be mad. The reason you'll be mad is you won't have a reason to stop because you won't get out of breath before your legs get tired. Then you'll just be confused lol. Hope I helped!

And this from Matt:

Go to bodybuilding.com Look up their workouts. They are all done by professionals. HIIT training is a great way to work up quickly. Its mostly diet and determination though. You need to be willing to push yourself. STRETCH and drink lots of water. Eat more protein to give your muscles something to recover with. Eat high potassium foods like coconut, almonds and bananas. Remember for a marathon you are looking to increase endurance. So look up endurance training regimens. Good luck and you can def do it!

With that kind of encouragement, I figured that it must be possible! I'll admit I do often think back to Caitlynne's comment and think, "I'm still waiting to feel like I'm not dying, and my legs are still tired before I leave my own block... when will I get to this magical "won't get out of breath" stage?!?!" In addition to this, my dad also got me in contact with his marathon running friend Dave, who I have since called my "coach." He sent me a link for a 20 week training schedule. That's what I've been trying so hard to stick to, but I'm afraid with my injuries (again, those stories to come later!) I may have to adapt to the 16 or 12 week training schedules. I got myself a $1 calendar book from Michaels and dug around my parents house until I found enough Lisa Frank stickers that I could give myself one every time I completed a running goal. Ah, the best of intentions. I don't think I've used those stickers since maybe week 4 when I started to be sidelined by injury. But hey, if you can motivate yourself with stickers as well, DO IT! It's so colorful and fun!

My starting weight was 157. I didn't take any measurements then, though I probably should have. My initial concerns were all about the lungs. As I mentioned in my introductory post, I'm not an athletic type of person. The closest I've ever come to a sport was figure skating. I did that up till about the single jump level and then called it quits. Waltz jumps were fun, but add in a toe loop? Well that's just getting complicated. And for my first run I was right about the lungs. I ran for about a minute and thirty seconds on my moms treadmill and had to stop it and lay on the floor panting. Pant pant pant... it was so sexy, let me tell you. Of course, I filmed myself doing this as well. Vlogging about running, what was I thinking?!?! Blogs are so much cooler. I managed to get myself up after a bit and continued on with my workout. "Gonna run the race, gonna get the medal!" was my mantra that first day. It was a joke between Billie and I in reference to Wreck It Ralph. "It was hard, but I think I can do this!" I told myself. Oh silly me, so optimistic! Just you wait! Please don't get me wrong. Starting a new endeavor like this, it does help to be positive. But if I'd only known what was coming...

Introductions

Hello!

Welcome to my little blog. Perhaps it will grow and people will read (I sure hope!) or perhaps it will serve more as a journal. Only time will tell, but I have lots to share!

My name is Stephanie, better known in the online world as Druzilla ever since I started playing World of Warcraft back in 2005. I'm currently 29 years old, I live in central Pennsylvania and I enjoy long walks on the beach. Not really. I actually usually dislike the beach but that's what people say when they want you to like them, right?

The main inspiration for this blog is running. I am not built for running, let's get that out in the open. I hate physical activity. I've shunned it since I can remember. Gym class? I laugh in the face of gym class, BWA HA HA HA. I was the girl making up t-shirts for my gym basketball team in hopes to get the measly participation points, all the while running away from the ball and hoping to God no one passed it to me.

So why running? Why blog about it?

There are a few reasons I started running. The main inspiration was my fantastic friend Billie asking me to train and run with her in a Disney World race. More on that later, but obviously I said I would. Training began February 22nd, 2014. A little late for New Years resolutions but all things considered, it's the one that's lasted the longest. Secondary reasons are more health related. First, weight. I don't consider myself especially heavy but when I started I was 157 lbs. I had been flirting with that weight all year after moving into my own home. Previously I'd keeping myself around 151 since I got married in 2011. My happy, healthy goal weight is always 135 but it's just so hard to get back to it! I figured adding running to my routine of absolutely nothing exercise related would help with that. Hah. Again, more on that later. The third reason I started running (or the second secondary reason, if you're trying to keep track) is because my husband and I hope to start a family this year and I want to be in better health prior to trying anything like a pregnancy.

So now that you know why running, why blog about it? I have this overwhelming desire to get the word out there, not all runners are amazing. They aren't all skinny. They aren't all fast. They aren't all pain free. I'm living proof. I will tell you, I suck at running but I still call myself a runner. I have all the gear, I go out and run, I walk, I get injured, but I keep going. I'm a runner. At the recommendation of another friend, I started reading Running Like A Girl by Alexandra Heminsley. (See it on Amazon) It's an OK book but I find myself getting actually a bit frustrated with her. The first quarter or so of the book is about her training for the London Marathon. Sure, her first couple of runs sounded like mine. Pain, limp, don't let anyone see you walk! But then her progress takes off, and suddenly she's there six months later ready to run her marathon. I won't include any spoilers here in case you want to read too, but she doesn't really complain about the running or the distance at all. She talks about hitting her wall, as I understand most if not all runners do in a full marathon... but she talks as though the first half of the marathon, all 13 miles, were a breeze. Honey, I've been training 6 months myself now and I can't run a full mile. I run, I walk, I run again... and at the end of the day I'm darn pleased when I come home with an overall pace of 15 minutes. My furthest distance to date is almost 7 miles and that included a LOT of walking. I can't imagine a marathon at this point, much less the half marathon looming over me in October. Again, more on that later but my point is:

Not everyone is a born runner. But you can do it. So I'm here to tell you the ins and outs of my running struggles. Perhaps I can give someone else the hope I was looking for in this book.

I hope you stick around and enjoy this time with me. Welcome!