MRI

I did it ladies.  I went to the doctor about my knee, told him my complaint and then cringed while anticipating the worst.  He said that he just thinks I've torn my miniscus (thanks to soccer), but that I can keep running.  Whew...on one condition, that I have an MRI done of my knee, just to make sure it's not something more serious.  So tonight at 9:30 (does that seem late to anyone else?) I will be having an MRI of my knee done.  I should know in a couple of days what it shows.  Tally ho right?  Cross your fingers for me girls. Muah!

The Ragnar Relay

If you want to read all about it (which you totally do), then head on over to my blog! All I have to say is Ragnar Rocked.

Totally doing it next year baby.

So uhhhh...

Just as I'm starting to swing out of my blogging funk, I go and get sick. Bleh. At least I was sick while Lor was out of town so then I didn't have to feel guilty about skipping workouts. It all started Thursday morning. I woke up with tummy troubles and wondered if I was sick or just stressed out. I had a soccer game Thursday night and was determined to play, but at the last second the game got canceled...thank heavens. By that point I was sick and achey all over. I had managed to eat a bowl of cereal and some crackers because I knew my body would need something to get through soccer on. The next day was more of the same but the aches had left and I was able to eat a bit more. By Friday night I was thinking I was on the up and up and planned on running Saturday, even sans Lori. (I KNOW) Well Saturday morning came and I woke up feeling like I had knives stabbed into every cavity of my face. Awesome. I couldn't move my head without wanting to cry. So running...yah no. I didn't even clean my house. Yes it was that bad. I drowned myself in fluids, and slept and took meds, and slept some more yesterday. Jared even made me stay home from church (which I planned on blogging then, but just slept some more...) Today I still don't feel great, but I feel a lot better than I have for the past few days, so yipee. Watch out. I may just find enthusiasm again too. Hmmmm....

Just Call Me Slacker

Yah....that's my new name. I have been in a total blogging funk. No desire to blog whatsoever, so I haven't. Not a very good excuse, but it's the truth. So here is my effort to get back into it. Speed has been far from my mind really these last 2 weeks. The weather has been soooo nice, all I want to do is run the trails until the snow drives me from them. So it has really been 2 weeks of trail running for me. I love the trails. They are good for my soul. One of the things that I really love about running the trails is that it clears my head and lets me focus on the beauty around me. With Thanksgiving this past week, it has allowed me to really reflect on all that I'm grateful for...at which at the top of that list are good friends, living in a gorgeous place, a strong body, and the freedom to do things when I want to without fear.

The one street run we did do this past week was the annual ORMC 5 mile run on Thanksgiving morning. Although this run was a little different than in years past. Usually the run starts with Sister Stephanie (a local catholic nun) giving a prayer of thanks. I missed that this year. I don't know if I just didn't hear it, or if it didn't happen, but one way or the other I didn't hear it and I was sad. Secondly, the run seemed really easy and short...oh wait it was. Someone was confused when plotting the course, because last time I checked 3.92 miles was not exactly the same as 5 miles....hmmmm....and thirdly we just ran and chatted sans any emotional trauma. Weird.

Plus this little guy joined us for the first time. Welcome Max to the joys of running.

The Need For Speed

When I'm upset or angry usually the first thing I want to do is go for a hard run. I want to run away from all of the things that are upsetting me, and just have a minute to clear my thoughts. When I run hard it seems that everything else in life falls away; it's just me and my thoughts and nature. It's so cleansing. I however do not always have that emotion to fuel my running. Because I am NOT a morning person and we exercise in the morning, many mornings it takes all the energy I have just to get out of bed, let alone run. My body screams at me as I put one leg in front of the other willing myself into a jog. Therefore I typically dread spead training and tempo run days. I know, however, that in order to widdle my half time down to 1:45 from 1:54 I am going to have to put some more effort into these workouts. Now if I could just harness some of my pent up agression and save it for the days that I speed train. Hmmmm....
Right now I have about 3 speed/hill exercises that I do, but I'm looking to expand. This week I am going to do some research and find at least 2 more speed training workouts that I can do to add to the reprotaire. I will report back next Friday. Are there any speed workouts that you've done that you really have found you love? I would love to hear about them.
In the meantime, happy training.

Trail Tempo Run

So I think I'd be much more inclined to do tempo runs all the time if every morning could be beautiful and filled with trails. Sadly it's much too dark to run the trails at the time that we usually go running. So we went at 7:00 this morning instead of 6:00 so we would have some light. The run itself was beautiful. The trail was wet from all of the rain yesterday and there were leaves everywhere so it was kind of slippery at times. I'm always amazed at how the trails energize me. I seem to be able to push myself a lot more on the trails. Today I felt really good running except for the occasional twinges of pain left over from doing 100 squats last Friday. Overall it was a great run. I just wish it were lighter earlier in the morning so we could do it more often. As much as I loved the trail run, running that late didn't really work for either Lori or I. Sad. But I will for sure take a tempo trail run any day over a speed training day! Tee hee.