Fast one for Friday

Yesterday I set out for a 7 mile run with the plan of pushing it at some point.  The first half is pretty much uphill with some down but mostly up so you can guess what the way back is since it is an out and back.  It is kind of gradual both ways with one big hill in the middle.

The first half I averaged miles in the low 9s and was pretty happy with it.  I felt like I was relaxed and not pushing too hard and the way back I decided to push it.  I averaged in the low 7s for the way back and it felt really really good!

I was kind of expecting my right hip to be sore today, but... it isn't! It feels better than it did yesterday :)  I kept questioning whether or not I should just quit running entirely for awhile until both hips were healed and felt better.  The reason I decided not to was that my left hip feels 100% better and I ran the whole time it was getting better.

The easier and way lower running mileage has been huge.  I have cut back to three running days instead of four and went from 40+ miles a week running to less than 20 for the last couple weeks.  I added a day of cycling instead and have been doing my PT, and HIIT training 3-4 times a week.

I am optimistic that hopefully in another couple of weeks I will be running with no hip pain for the first time since.. late March!   That would be so exciting to me.

After yesterdays run, my little sister and I took our youngest ones to the local park to play.  I went home and  did two ZWOWs and a Bodyripped workout.  I guess I just had a lot of energy yesterday!

Here is my daughter doing "pushups" while looking at the "bad broken boat" (the Titanic) She told me it would be a bad boat to ride in.  What can I say she is pretty smart!

Rippin, Rockin, and WOWn

If you follow me much at all you know I am a big Bodyrock.tv fan. Or at least I was until Zuzanna and Freddy split and they brought on Lisa.  She seemed great, but then she had to go and get big boobs and look all fake. Not just that really but the in your face porn type shots kind of got a little old.  I don't go to Bodyrock.tv looking for that I just want a great workout.

 I used to stalk the website daily for new workouts.  I hardly ever go there anymore.  Not that the workouts still aren't really good, because they are.  I wish they would stick with the basics. They have several different girls leading the workouts, some of which can hardly even do the moves right.  Not motivating to me. I don't want to be buying lots of equipment all the time.  I miss the old Bodyrock.  I still go back and do old workouts all the time.

I do like Zuzanna's new ZWOW workouts quite a bit.  I love them because the only equipment she uses is some freeweights. I don't like that she does circuit format more than HIIT format, but I usually change it to a HIIT format anyway.  I just seem to like it better that way.

Her website is not up yet, but is supposed to be soon.  I personally would rather go to a website than youtube, but that is just me.

I recently also discovered Kyla Gagnon's new site Bodyripped  which is pretty much copycatted off of Bodyrock.tv.  In fact she was a guest host on it a couple of months ago before she started Bodyripped.  I am not going to hold it against her though because I am loving her site.  No crazy in your face sex selling.  No look at my boobs and butt shots.  You can watch these workouts in front of your co workers and not feel like you should be hiding it.

I also discovered a great site called litealloy.com.  The website has taken every ZWOW and Zuzanna Bodyrock workout and made them easy to sort through. The workout moves are listed and how long it takes for each workout as well as if it is a bodyweight workout or if you need equipment. You can also pick the random Bodyrock.tv workout and it will give you a random workout to do. If you are a big Zuzanna fan I recommend this site!

In the end what really matters is results, but I would rather see this when I go looking for a workout

than be assaulted with this when I go looking for a workout.

I think it has toned down a bit on Bodyrock, but for me the damage is done and it is no longer the first place I go to when looking for a great workout.

What is your go to workout website, if you have one?
What is your take on Bodyrock, Bodyripped and or ZWOW, ever tried any of them?

An Important Question Answered and One Asked

Yesterday I asked if anyone knew what a whiskey ditch was.  As of the time I wrote this no one answered in the affirmative.

In Montana if you go into a bar and order a whiskey ditch you are ordering a whiskey with equal parts water and ice cubes.  I didn't realize just how regional this was until I googled it and both definitions I found mentioned Montana.  HA!

I recently ordered this vest from Brooks.  I have been wanting a running vest for awhile.  I decided to go with a bright color.  This green is so bright in real life it practically glows.  I am so in love with it.  Yesterday was the first time I wore it and so far I really like it.  Although really yesterday was a little warm to test it out for.

I am also thinking about ordering another pair of cold weather running tights.  I liked the ones I got last year, so I may go with those again.  I think they were from Saucony, I just was not impressed with the zipper on the calf breaking so soon after I got them.  I still wore them all winter, I just would like another pair so I don't have to wash them so much, or wear them dirty so much.

Any great recommendations?

Weekend highlights

Last week my sweet daughter climbed in bed with me sometime in the early morning.  No big deal until she started flailing around and cracked me square on the nose with the back of her head.  I saw stars in the darkness and then felt blood gushing out of my nose.  I rushed to the bathroom and was working on stopping the blood when I started feeling really woozy and broke out in a cold sweat.  Not good.  I know that feeling.  Usually happens right before I pass out.

I didn't want to wake anyone up so I rushed out to the living room and laid on the couch waiting to either pass out or for the feeling to go away.  I finally felt better and the blood stopped gushing, but I can say Rocky was no help the whole time.  She is a very playful kitten,

I had to work that day and didn't think my nose was feeling too bad until I had to start wearing my surgical mask. My nose started to THROB.  I was so glad we only had half a day of surgeries scheduled.  I took took some Advil but it hardly seemed to touch the pain.

The ENT surgeon assured me my nose would be fine and would feel better in a day or two.  There really are some benefits to working with surgeons.  I love soliciting free medical advice.  I figure they owe it to us for putting up with them some days.

My husband and I managed to get away to a friends birthday party Friday night at Chico Hot Springs. (Huge thanks to my sisters for that)  We didn't book a room in time so we had to stay at the nearest town, which was only half an hour away. We even managed to close down the bar.

 We ate in the Wine Cellar Room.  The food was amazing and the boys taught the waiter what a whiskey ditch was.  Funny he is in Montana and didn't know.

It was funny to listen to conversations as it always seemed to revolve around everyone's kids and things we had done in college.  How times have changed!

It was so good to see some old friends and meet some new ones.




Sunday we went to the Barnum and Bailey Ringling Bros Circus.  The kids really enjoyed the preshow festivites. They got to sit ringside.

They also got to do some dancing. and we saw an elephant up really close!  Awesome!

Saturday I did an old Bodyrock workout and did the elliptical for 45 minutes.  Sunday I went for a bike ride saw a fox and a coyote.  Today I went for an 11 mile run and felt pretty good with the last three miles being the fastest ones.  :)  My little sister is out running now while I watch her kids and then we are going to do an old Bodyrock workout together.  I like the old ones the best.

Do you know what a whiskey ditch is?
Anything exciting for the weekend?

Weekend Review

My weekend was super busy, here it is in condensed form.

• Go get Bountiful Basket, stop along the way for a 5.8 mile run.  I was going to do an even 6 but had gut issues again.  What is up with that?!
• Get home, frost birthday cake for Little Cowboy, wrap presents, make chip dip, shower, get kids ready.
• Get the news my sister and her kids are going to be flying out of Tunisia and into Germany sometime on Sunday. 
• Cry because I am so relieved they are getting out of there.
• Set up for multi-cousin birthday party at my Mom's house.
• Have party.
• Go home have birthday BBQ for my husband with his parents.

Cade wanted a rodeo cake.

Hard to believe he is 6, or will officially be on Thursday.  Cousin Chase is four and cousin Carter 7.

Sunday

• 15 mile bike ride, be sad I am not doing the half marathon half an hour from my house. 
• Clean house (again, does it ever end)
• Organize pantry (kids are so messy)
• do a Bodyrock workout
• Find out sister and kids will hopefully be here Monday night.  :)
• Have the neighbors over for supper.

 How was your weekend?
Any races? 

A shout out to Julia at Pain, Pride and Perseverance on her first 50 miler!
Xaarlin from Pain is Nothing on her awesome 25 minute marathon PR this weekend you can read about it here.  So happy for her comeback marathon.
Sarah at Thinfluenced did a century ride with Team in Training in honor of her son's battle with cancer, read about her amazing ride here.

Some days you just need a hug.

Stories of foreign events always seem so far away.  They don't feel like they really impact me, but this week things started to get a little personal.  My little sister, the one whose hand I used to love in mine because it was so little when we were growing up, lives in Tunisia.  Her husband works at  the US Embassy.

source

Thankfully the American school was closed today as there was a car bomb set off outside the American school.  Yesterday they got police escorts home.

 Also thankfully my sister and her family are an hour away now.  I can't help but feel scared worried and helpless.

Personally I think she should hop on a plane and fly back to Montana for awhile until things start to calm down.  I can't imagine being over there right now with my kids.

I just don't understand the violence. The anger. The hatred.

So anyway I learned most of the crazy stuff at work today.  I had a few things to do before I could leave for the day including what we call terminally cleaning some of the operating rooms because housekeeping was short of help.

Another co worker and I got to work.  I put on Carly Rae Jepson's Call Me Maybe for a little distraction and was just getting into wiping down the walls when I started getting sprayed with foam and water.

I yelled "What the hell"? threw down the wall cleaner and ran from the room.  Sarah, another co worker took one look at me and said "We have to call for help" She ran off and I continued to stand there in shock for a couple more seconds.

Apparently as I was wiping the wall down I hit the wall sprinkler just right and set it off.   I ran to check the other rooms to make sure it wasn't going off in every room.

Nope just mine.  Great.

At this point no one was really sure what had happened and from the look of me, they thought there was an explosion of some sort.  I was covered in black sooty looking stuff and very wet.  The sprinkler continued to GUSH water and fire retardant.

They finally figured out there was no fire and turned off the fire alarms and got facility services over.  By the time they got the water shut off the water in the operating room was over ankle deep and flowing out into the hallways.  We had shoved blankets up under the doors to slow the water so that helped.

What a mess!  I felt awful.

Someone later told me the black stuff I was covered in was from when they cut the pipes originally.  

We had to inventory and toss all the sterile supplies that had been in the room as they could no longer be considered sterile.  The OR will be out of commission for about a week. Pretty sure there were a few computers that got smoked.

The best part.  My co workers knew I already having a bad day because of the whole Tunisia thing and despite making them all stay longer than we would have had to, I was bought lunch and given lots of hugs and love.

The good news was we now know what happens when those go off and nearly everything that was lost will be covered by insurance, and no one was hurt.

Stories Runners Tell

I was so excited to run yesterday.  I was feeling well rested, my hips are feeling pretty good and AND it was a most awesome 46 degrees out when I left the house.  That my friends is my kind of running weather.  Slightly chilled to start with and then perfect all the friggin way.

I decided to try for a long run hoping, maybe just maybe it would feel good and I could pull of a half marathon soon.

Hunting season for birds has opened so I made sure I had some orange on and I good thing too since I ran into a bird hunter along the way. Not that I look much like a bird.

I kept the pace pretty easy staying right around 9 minute miles and did great until...

the belly kind of got crampy, or more specifically the guts got crampy.  Real crampy.  Emergency crampy. I need to take care of the problem before it takes care of itself crampy.  I guess orange chicken with veggies and rice was not a good pre run breakfast.

No problem I thought, I had some TP in my SPI belt.  I opened it to double check.  DENIED!  I had taken it out and forgot to put it back in.

I considered my options carefully.

• Grass or leaves.. no leaves anywhere and all the grass is dried up and scratchy.. not good.
• Sacrifice an article of clothing.. what I love all my clothes!
• Waddle very slowly back to my sister in laws house..2 and a half long long miles away
• Go au naturale ...eww

Luckily I had worn an old long sleeve shirt I didn't care much about and it had been stashed a mile away.

That is really all I need to tell about that story. Thankfully I run on roads that are not traveled often. Seriously.  

The run went okay but not great.  Left hip feels great, right hip bothered me the whole way.  THE WHOLE WAY.  I guess it isn't that big of a bummer then that the half marathon I thought I found here in October has been canceled until next spring.

I had been wishing for a local half marathon in the spring or early summer so that really is perfect.

Anygood runner problem stories lately?

Three Things Thursday

1. Running.. yeah, haven't run much.  I think I maybe ran 10 miles last week?  4 of those miles were super easy with the double stroller and 6 were just super easy miles.  and I mean super easy.  The first two miles were just barely under ten minute miles.  I was trying not to even pay attention to my pace because when I do I can't stand going slower than 9 minute miles for an easy run.  I have been biking and on the elliptical and doing Bodyrock workouts.  and I did my physical therapy once.  My hips are enjoying the break from running I think.  I have decided not to worry about my original goal of getting in at least 100 running miles this month and r-e-l-a-x about it a little.

Why is that so hard to do?

2. Went to Target to pick up some birthday party supplies for my son who will be turning 6 soon, I did of course happen to find a few things that were not for the party.  Pumpkin spice coffee is maybe my favorite coffee flavor EVER.  I hate that it is seasonal.  I bought three bags and am considering going back and buying every bag of it that they have.

3. Rocky is almost 7 weeks old.  She went from a small helpless and I do mean helpless (couldn't even pee by herself) little kitten to the fun playful stage she is now.  Love this stage.  She is litter box trained (not thrilled about the litter box, I had planned to be done with that forever, but I can't just kick her outside to fend for herself!!) and eats by herself and I finally saw her drinking out of her water bowl all by herself.  She also has it figured out where we go at night and climbs up on the bed to play, or snuggle, but mostly play.  That gets her booted from the bed, but she is pretty persistent!

Anyone want a small small cat?

To shake or not to shake.

Every now and then something comes around that defies everything you have lived your life believing to be the gospel truth.  We believe these things because that is what we have been told our whole life.

Green means go.

Running is bad for your knees.

Germs are evil and we should sanitize every chance you get and stay out of the mud.

Too much salt causes high blood pressure.

Red meat is bad for you.

You should eat a low fat or fat free diet to lose weight.
(I hope you know I am being sarcastic with all except the first one)

I love it when I read articles about new research to the contrary.  Turns out salt isn't quite the villain it was made out to be.  Think about it.  Our bodies need salt.  Especially when we exercise and are active.

I came across an article in Costco Connection recently that talked about the salt issue.   Here is a small excerpt

and one more little snippet I found interesting if you don't want to read the whole article

Interesting no?

I found another couple of articles here in the NY Times and here from CBS news which both say about the same thing.  Yet at the there are still medical establishments and news outlets promoting limiting salt intake, like this one.

Kind of makes you think maybe nobody really knows anything and are just making wild guesses based on one study or the other.

I think it all leads to what I always try to follow when eating.  All things are fine in moderation.  Moderation being the key.

Motivation Monday: Cross training blues

I haven't been much of a bike rider since ?...not sure when I used to ride my bike a little while growing up, but we had all gravel roads and we probably never did more than 5 miles at a time and not often. I took my bike to college and biked to class and back, but other than that I much preferred to run.

 

 I have been trying to cross train more since my first marathon two months ago so I borrowed a bike from my mom (Thanks Mom) because mine at some point had been run over and one of the tires was crooked. It has been great for cross training although I don't get as excited about a bike ride as I do a run.   Half way through a bike ride I have to really give myself a pep talk to keep moving, keep going, almost there, type of stuff. 

 

I am not a quitter though.  I am determined to keep using the bike for cross training, I think it gives my body a nice break from the pounding it gets from running and unlike the elliptical is enough different from running to be true cross training.  The Run Less Run Faster book talked about how the elliptical was too close to running and they didn't count it as one of their approved cross training  methods.

 

At least on the elliptical I can watch reruns of Greys Anatomy, on the bike I tend to go back and forth on the two miles of pavement I have.  Maybe I should just get over getting to go faster and take it to the gravel so I can see more country, but it really gets bouncy on the gravel!

 

I think one of the biggest things that keeps me one the bike is knowing that in the long run it should really help get me back to running healthy.  So once a week it is will be what I do for my workout.

 

I would have to say though that I love biking compared to doing physical therapy exercises, which I find monotonously BORING. 

 

 



I did read somewhere while browsing around the web that some lateral hip issues can be the result of an imbalance between strong abs and weaker back muscles.  I am good about ab exercises and not so good about back ones, so I may look into this more.  Anyone else know anything about this?

Did you learn to like biking? if so how?

What is your favorite cross training method?

Sunday Short Post

Since I am on the injured list this month and trying to be more into cross training I have been reading up on it.  I had bought the book Run Less Run Faster several years ago, but because I like lots of mileage and didn't have a bike, no pool to swim in and no rowing machine I never followed the plan.

I recently came across an article on Cross Fit Endurance (CFE) which also advocates lower mileage and more intense running coupled with cross fit training.  I don 't do cross fit though. I don't really have all of the equipment and can't afford to join.

I think I will stick to doing HIIT training, which I think has been very beneficial to me and work on not being a mileage numbers junky. I think it is easy to get caught up in the number and since I am a wee bit competitive I want to see how many more I can do and more and faster.  Not always a good idea.  Just ask the muscles on my lateral hips, they are pretty pissed off at me right now.

I need to be more focused on quality than quantity.  Anyone else have a problem with this?

I am thinking of trying the Run Less Run Faster approach next spring when I start training for another half marathon or marathon or whatever.  Just curious if anyone else has tried it and what thoughts you had about it.

and totally unrelated but, time to go play with these two munchkins!

The mind dreams things the body can't always keep up with

I decided to call it a month.

 I am not going to be doing my most favorite race the Montana half marathon or going to Denver on the 22nd for the Rock and Roll half marathon. 

Not running a local 10k today.  Time to back off on the training, concentrate on my physical therapy and let my body have some rest.

I have been struggling with lateral hip pain since late March on the left side and since early July on the right side.  Recovering from a marathon took way longer than I ever would have guessed and I didn't give my body a break after Hood to Coast like I should have.

So as hard as it was to decide to skip racing in September I think in the long run it will be the best decision.   I am tired of the lateral hip pain and now my hammy is mad at me.  I think there is a message with the hammy getting mad now... time for a slower pace!

So.. for the next month I am going to bike, use my elliptical, do my physical therapy, and only do slow easy runs.  No long runs, no speed work, no hill workouts, no intervals.

I am hoping by October to feel

fresh

energized

strong

healthy

no more hip pain!

 

I think if the hamstring issue had not come up I probably would have kept going even though the hips hurt most of the time.  I don't know why it can be so hard to listen to the body.  The mind dreams things the body can't always keep up with I guess.

 

This is making me rethink my strategy for next year the things I want to do.  That I think will have to be another post though.

 

Do you listen to your body right away or do you try to ignore it if it seems minor?

Three Things Thursday

 1. Rocky Ballerina One-Dot is growing.  She is almost six weeks old and litter box trained but still can't figure out how to eat food.  I am mixing her kitten food with water and putting it in the bottle, but life would be a lot easier if she would just figure it out already!

What?  You don't want to bottle feed me forever?

2. I canned and froze 40 pounds of peaches over labor day weekend and made four pints of peach honey from the skins.  YUM!

 3.  We took the kids on a Labor Day hike around the ranch.  They found some sticks to make bull horns with.

 We went back to the pickup to have a picnic lunch and re-hydrate.

 Found some shell fossils in the rocks

 The horses were very curious about us hiking through their territory, but were not impressed with Cola.  Our  horses are used to him, but my Dad's horses are not.

August is long gone, brief recap

August seriously seemed to fly by.  I can't believe the whole month went by and I only did one race.  Okay it was a race with three legs and took 25 and a half hours and was pretty awesome, but I usually do 2 or three races.

Miles Ran 138, which was 20 more than July.  For some reason it didn't feel like I ran that much.  I finally was feeling great with my running again and went and ran Hood to Coast, which was nothing short of amazing, but now my hamstring on the right side is bothering me.

Hoping I will get in more than the 64 miles I got in last September.  I haven't had a month below 100 miles since last October and I would kind of like to keep it that way :)

I have been cross training more with the elliptical and my bike.  Helps but isn't the same.  I am trying to stay focused on the long term, healing up, and not being too much of a whiner.

The problem with that is..the two half marathons I would like to do this month and the zero half marathons that are around here after that until next spring.  !  !   !!

Wondering if I should just take September to relax and let my body want to run again.  I ran four miles today and my heart just wasn't really in it.  I quit after 4 miles so as not to stress out my right hamstring.  It seemed to do good with some moments of tightness.  I will finish my workout later on the elliptical or maybe do a Bodyrock type workout.

The only race I did all of August was Hood to Coast.  I declined to enter two races I would have LOVED to have done, but I didn't think my body was ready.  I am glad I listened to my body and felt great for Hood to Coast.  That one was worth skipping the other races for.

so my August highlights were

• Hood to Coast

• Little Cowboy starting kindergarten

• keeping Rocky alive after finding her abandoned and just born

Motivation Monday

What is my motivation today?  Getting healed up.  I have had hip issues since March/April first in the left, then both, post marathon left foot pain, random right foot pain, and now a right hamstring issue.  Not really the summer I was hoping for and with racing season drawing to an end here in Montana I am hoping to get in  a race or two at the end of September and maybe one in October.

I finally went to physical therapy last week and learned some exercises and stretches that will hopefully help my most chronic issue, the lateral hip pain.  SO TIRED OF IT.

I already hate my physical therapy exercises.  They are boring and feel like they take forever to do.  There are 11 exercises for each side.  3 sets of 10-15 on each side.  I about die of boredom halfway through them I have to keep reminding myself it is for the greater good of my running.

I am more of a high intensity interval kind of girl and slowing down for a workout is making me want to stab my eye out. Okay not really, but you get my point.


I want this to be me again.

and that is a little hard to do when constantly dealing with some sort of injury or the other.  SO for now being good, cross training and doing my exercises!

What is your motivation this week?

It is just so hard to be good

My running plans seem so up in the air right now.  I strained my hamsting when I nearly fell at the end of my second leg at Hood to Coast.  I didn't think it was too bad until I tried to do an interval workout Thursday morning at it started to feel like someone was taking a saw to it while I was running. So ...I am back to biking and the elliptical so that can heal up. 

I did a slow quarter of a mile this morning just to see how it felt.  Not bad but I knew it still wouldn't be fun to run on.  I knew I shouldn't have, but sometimes I just can't help myself.  No kids and perfect morning weather and I can't run.  Feels like I am having to sit with my nose in the corner.

I was really hoping to do a half marathon in September but it isn't looking so good right now. UGH!  I feel like I have been so frustrated with my running since I ran my first marathon July 8th. It has just been one thing after another

I went to physical therapy Thursday for my lateral hip pain which has been in a constant problem since sometime in March or April.  Once I get warmed up it doesn't bother me, but it is the getting out of chairs after a hard run that does.  After my first leg of Hood to Coast I could hardly walk every time I got out of the van.

I got some stretchy therapy bands and some excercises to do at home.  My kids love to play with the bands so I am going to have to keep a careful eye on them so I don't lose them.

In totally unrelated non running news

Rocky is now litter box trained and pooping and peeing all by herself!  Still on the bottle.  I am hoping she will figure out the eating thing soon, but it is kind of fun to sit and snuggle with her while she nurses on her bottle.  She is also getting very fun and playful and will follow me around the house while I clean.  I took her outside last night and she thought the bigger cat looked like a fun play buddy until Tip boxed her ears.  Life has hard lessons sometimes!


Cola didn't want to be left out of the picture, it is hard to get a picture of a small cat that doesn't want to hold still!

My son reported last night that he is getting chased around at recess by a first grade girl and she is putting rocks down his shirt.  I told him that girls chase boys when they like them.  He thought that was pretty cool.  Camry is a friend of his older cousins and he really likes her.  I asked if he put rocks down her shirt and he said "Yeah, that is where we have a problem, I don't want to go to the principals office"  Too cute!