What I've Learned... Being Injured - Week 2

Just the other day was officially two weeks since I got injured and I'm finally feeling good enough to give an easy jog a try later this evening. As far as what I injured, I still have no clue. Each day it feels like a different injury. One day it'll be on the outside of my knee (typical IT band) while the next day it'll be on the inside. Last week my blog post was what I learned about being injured in the first week, this week I wanted to write a little bit of what I've learned in week two and what I need to do to make sure this doesn't happen again.

1. My BFFs: Ibuprofen, ice, warm baths and foam roller. There's been two new additions to my daily routine: warm baths and the foam roller. I'm taking ibuprofen and icing throughout the day, and at night I've made it a point to warm up the muscles and get a good foam rolling session in. I definitely have a love/hate relationship (don't we all?) with my foam roller. Funny how something that can bring you to scream out curse words tears, is the same thing that makes your muscles feel normal again. 
2. Fear of getting hurt again. I'm afraid to run tonight, not going to lie. My biggest fear is that I go out for an easy mile or two and I'm brought to tears by the same pain that struck me the other week. I'm afraid of being out for yet another two+ weeks. I'm afraid of never running again. Okay, maybe I'm overreacting a little on the last one...  
3. Fear of not running my Marathon in January. I'm not sure if I'll be able to throw myself back into training in some of my highest milage weeks. Worst case scenario the husband said he'll flip-flop race bibs with me and he'll run the full while I run the half. Sounds great, but in reality he's not all that prepared for a full either. The last long run that I've done was a 15 miler 3 weeks ago, I'm not sure from here how to jump back into training. 
4. My twitter following is amazing. I know I said this last week, but it's the truth. Whether they're asking how my injury is healing, giving me advice on products to try or advice on strengthening, it's great to know you have the support of others.  Kelly (@lovingtherun) has been amazing this past week and I'm so grateful. Not only did she take time to recommend an incredible article written by Jason Fitz (@JasonFitz1) on how to strengthen your IT Band after injury, but also pointed me to the direction of Rock Tape. Taped up with my hot pink tape for the first time last night, and I can already tell we'll be together for a while. 
5. Prevention. From here on out it's time for me to step up my training, not only keep up with my running but also prevent injuries from happening again. I need to quit slacking when it comes to hill workouts as well as my lower body strength training. I'm really good at remembering to do upper body and core, but somehow I seem to slack on lower body strength. From here on out, it's all about being proactive and preventing another injury, whether it's the same injury that has plagued me over the weeks, or Heaven forbid something worse. 

When injured during Marathon training, how do you get back on track? Jump right in, or take things slow?

What I've Learned... Being Injured

My luck has officially worn out. After running for nearly a year and a half, running distances ranging from 5ks to half marathons it has finally happened. It has been plaguing me for over a week, forcing me to sit out over a week thus far. What exactly is it? Injury.

Let it be said, I've tested my luck before and never been injured. So why me? Why now? I'm guessing a lot of it has to do with the amount of cross country driving the husband and I have been doing, mixed with half-assing my workouts, and focusing on upper-body strength mixed a little with the lack of stretching pre and post runs. I've gotten away with most of those before, but the perfect mix of those at the current moment led to the perfect disaster.

So... how did it happen? Last Thursday I went out for an easy 3 miler after giving my legs rest a couple of days to stretch after the husband and I drove back to California from seeing family in Oklahoma and Wisconsin. The run started off shaky. No problem, haven't really ran in over a week, so just keep running. Mile one, a little pain in the knees. C'mon Andie, walk it off. By mile 2.5 my knees almost felt like they were having muscle spasms. Oh, no. This is definitely not normal. I left the gym feeling defeated. In all honesty, I'm surprised I didn't leave in tears. As frustrating as that night had been, recovery has been worse. Just when I think my IT Band is back to normal, it throws me a loop and a new pain.

What I've learned While Being Injured:

1. My BFFs: Ibuprofen, compression and ice. Over the course of my running adventure I've learned to truly love all three of these, but now they go with me everywhere. I almost always have an ice pack with me when I leave the house, sneak compression tights on underneath my jeans and have a bottle of ibuprofen in my car, in the house, and in my purse. Never can be too prepared.
2. The love I have for running. I can't even tell you the number of times I've welled up with tears at the thought or mention of running and races. Before injury I treated running a hobby, but now that I'm laid up I realize how much it really means to me and to my sanity.
3. I HATE sleeping on my back. Absolutely hate it. You don't realize how accustomed you become to things, until you can't do it. I'm a side sleeper. I'm a cuddler. This whole sleeping on my back so I don't put pressure on my IT band thing? Not my idea of a good nights sleep. 
4. My husband rocks. The night before we left for the Marine Corps Ball, he stayed up until 3 in the morning to clean the kitchen and living room for me, because I could barely walk or get off the couch to clean. Sure, as women we all ask our husbands all the time to help us out. But for them to do it without asking? Priceless.
5. The Twitter community My twitter following is incredible. They have had nothing but advice, well wishes and support. It's truly amazing, and I'm so grateful to have them all in my life. <3

Have you injured your IT Band before? Any other friendly advice? Also, how did you cope with being injured and not being able to have your stress release?

Related Posts: What I've Learned... Being Injured - Week 2 

Why I've disappeared... again.

I know this is no excuse, and I don't exactly have the best track record for blogging regularly. Oops! Anyways, the reason excuses excuses I've disappeared the last few weeks is that I've been a crazy working as many hours as I can, organizing to the point of perfection, to cleaning all nooks and crannies fool. Why? Because this happened... finally.

So what if the first thing I noticed in this picture were my legs? 

Yep! My husband is finally home from Afghanistan, and has been back in the states for almost a week. We've been busy getting things ready for our cross-country road trip, and just trying to enjoy each-others company. It's crazy going from a single housewife for the last 7 months, only talking to my husband once every week or two, to having my husband by my side 24/7. So surreal at times. There are still moments when we're watching tv on the couch that I can't believe he's actually sitting next to me. I can't even explain the feeling. It's funny thinking back to early in the deployment and the conversations I would have with fellow wives, and the things we'd wish for. Thank goodness he has been easing me back into his obsession love of video games because I remember quite vividly there was a rough week, where I told my friend Jenna that I would give anything to see my husband sitting on the couch, ignoring me while playing Call Of Duty. It's weird getting used to the little things like cooking dinner for two again, sharing the remote or not being able to sprawl out across our queen sized bed. It's the little things I tend to take for granted when he is home, and it's the weirdest feeling getting back into the swing of things when he's home. Luckily he has been amazing helping get us back into the swing of life from 7 months ago. He's been back in his routine of putting gas in the cars, taking out trash and making breakfast in the mornings. Sometimes it's those little things that you miss the most.

Together again. <3

Marathon Training Week One... CHECK!

I'm officially done with week one of my marathon training, and it really feels great. I know it's only week one, but I really do feel like I've accomplished something. I'm really trying hard to complete my training to the best of my ability and by the books, since I really slacked on training for both half marathons. My idea is that if I post for the world to see, it's a way of holding myself accountable. Of course I love dailymile, and have confessed my love for the site time and time again, but without others seeing what my training plan looks like, I really can't be judged for work I am/am not doing. I guess, I want to be judged. I want others to see my training and see how far I've some in such a short period of time, and maybe it's also for myself to see where I was at week one and see where I finish at week eighteen.

Monday: 
   Training Plan: Rest
   Actual: Rest Whew!
Day one sure was difficult. Almost didn't feel like I worked out. Oh, wait...

Tuesday:

   Training Plan: 3 mile run

   Actual: 3 mile run @ 10:30 min/mile pace
Nothing crazy. First run in a couple weeks, and only one of a handful since my last half-marathon in August. I wasn't really expecting much, so a 10:30 min/mile pace worked for me.

Wednesday:

   Training Plan: 5 mile pace

   Actual: 5 mile run @ 11:24 min/mile pace / 60 min spin class / 60 min weights
Over-achiever? Yep. Probably. My best friend is an incredible athlete, and helping me weight train. Wednesday's just happen to be a two-a-day workout. If it starts getting to be too much, I'll calm things down. Promise. ::fingers crossed behind my back::

Thursday:

   Training Plan: 3 mile run

   Actual: Rest
Yes, I know. You're probably thinking to yourself, "WTH? Skipping runs already, Andie?!" But it wasn't like that at all. Really worked out hard on Wednesday, and decided to take a day of rest to prevent any sort of injury. Last thing I wanted was to be injured after week one.

Friday:

   Training Plan: Rest

   Actual: 3 mile run @ 9:50 min/mile pace
Ran while in San Diego. The miles just seemed to come so easy, and time flew by. Really wish more runs were like that. But all runs can't be pure perfection, right?

Saturday: 

   Training Plan: 8 mile run

   Actual: Cross Train - row machine 20 minutes / bike 50 minutes
::FACEPALM:: Just assumed that my long run would be on Sunday, so cross-training on Saturday right?! Wrong. In the famous words of Oscar Wilde, "When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me." Truth. 
Overall, my first cross training session went A-MA-ZING! The last time I did a true cross-training session at the gym, I could barely get to 10 minutes on the row-machine, and somehow I made it to 20 minutes. Bike went well, too, but nothing crazy to report on. 

Sunday: 

   Training Plan: Cross Train

   Actual: 8 miles @ 11:58 min/mile pace
Now I know why cross training is on Sunday, and the long run is on Saturday. I was dying and my legs were extremely exhausted. Oh, well. Better luck next week. The only plus to this run? The gorgeous run along the ocean at sunset. 

Holding Myself Accountable

It's official: I'm currently finishing up with week one of training for a marathon. The marathon that I'm training for is the Carlsbad Marathon in beautiful Carlsbad, CA and is the first race in the San Diego Triple Crown series. The most exciting part of this race? While I'll be running the full marathon, my incredible husband will be running the half marathon. This will actually only be the second race of mine that he's attended, with the first being our Thanksgiving 5k last year. Wow. I've come a long way since then! :) Never ever in a million years would I have thought that I would even be slightly interested in running 26.2 miles for fun. Even when I went out for that first hellish run with my best friend Jessica in the Summer of 2010, the thought never even crossed my mind that I would be able to complete a 5k. Here I am, early Fall of 2011 and thus far I have completed three 5k's, two 10k's and two half marathons.

With all of that being said, I needed to come up with a way to make sure my training gets done. Once my husband gets home from Afghanistan, he'll be there to push me and make sure that all my workouts get completed. Until then, it's just me, myself and I. I'm not going to say that I'm a slacker (okay, okay. I'm a slacker), but sometimes I let life get in the way of my training. I think the only way to truly hold myself accountable to my marathon training schedule is to blog at the end of each week about the previous weeks training. Sure, I log my miles and workouts on dailymile, but no one knows what my training schedule was supposed to be except for me. As much as I love dailymile and absolutely swear by it, it doesn't really give me that extra push to get my miles in.

Are you good at getting training plans completed the way that they were meant to be completed? How do you hold yourself accountable?

Don't Worry. I'm Still Here.

It's been quite crazy the last few weeks. Scratch that. It's been a ridiculous 2011 and I think I've been moving at 88 MPH. If only I had Doc Martin and the DeLorean to take me back to the beginning of the year to slow things back down. Hmm... wouldn't that be nice?! The year started with prepping for the husbands deployment, continued with him deploying to Afghanistan and me going back to Milwaukee for a few months. I ran my first half marathon (and my second) and played tour guide to both my sister and my mom here in California. Throw in a few cross country road trips, and at least a hundred incredible memories and you'll have my 2011 to this date.

Since the America's Finest City Half Marathon in San Diego 3 weeks ago, I have found myself in such a horrible post-race depression/funk/rut. It's funny how as I was crossing the finish line at that race I was thinking about how I couldn't wait to start training for a full marathon, and a week later the last thing that I wanted to do was put on my running shoes. Thank goodness for all my incredible running friends who urged me to lace up, and my good friend Kama who got me to the gym yesterday for a killer spin class and weight session. It feels amazing to have the endorphins surging through my veins again. Tomorrow my friends and I have a challenging 5 mile hike planned and I'm so excited to take it on. Also, Tuesday officially starts my marathon training for the Carlsbad Full in Carlsbad, CA. It's so crazy to think that in just over 18 weeks I'll be crossing the finish line to my first marathon and able to call myself a marathoner.

So yes. I'm still here, just been very busy and was laying low from the running community. I'll be more active from here on out. Promise.

We Run For Those Who Can't

I always love reading the shirts of fellow runners, and seeing everything from various charities to "I run because (insert motivation here)". It's always amazing to see where runners have been, and what their motivation is to continue for one more mile. I've learned that runners tend to wear their heart on their sleeve, and my running group for the AFC Half Marathon in San Diego on Sunday was no exception. Who were we running for? Five incredible men who gave the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan and we pray will never be forgotten. You will recognize three of the men from my previous post from my first half marathon, but unfortunately two more names have been added to the list of fallen from our 3rd Battalion 4th Marines Family. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: The Marine Corps is a family. The Marines themselves are brothers, and their wives/girlfriends/sisters/mothers are sisters to each other. 

We ran to honor these men. 

We ran to remember their sacrifice. 

We ran in hope that others would read their names and never forget. 

Cpl Paul Zanowick

LCpl Jason Hill

Cpl Mark Goyet

Lcpl Christopher Camero

SSgt Leon Lucas

Post race. Runners & Our Cheerleaders.

Also, a huge thank you to one of our Darkside Moms who had these shirts made to honor the men lost (whose names are listed on the back).