A few kinks to work out...

As I said yesterday, I probably needed to take today off because of the ankles.  But getting in that first run with the jogging stroller - seeing how the little diva did - was too much of a pull to leave the running shoes in the closet.  So in grand denial style, I loaded up the stroller and the diva in the car and headed off to Quiet Waters Park.

I like Quiet Waters.  They have a decent paved trail with options for a couple different distances.  Today I just wanted to take it slow and easy to see how the little one adjusted to the jogging stroller and not hurt myself anymore, so I basically followed the course for the JLA Volunteers on the Run 5K (which happens every fall...check back for details on this year's run), except I swapped the boat loop for the compost loop. 

Things seemed to be going well for the diva...at least she didn't hate the stroller.  It wasn't going quite as well for me.  It definitely is tougher running with the stroller than without.  Most notably my arms were tired from pushing...or rather holding the stroller in front. Give me a couple more and this should get easier.  The other thing I noticed, I couldn't quite get up to speed.  Understatement.  I was going a more than a minute per mile slower.  Hopefully I can chip away at that as I become accustomed to the change.  Actually, this may be a good thing for my speed.  Just think of how much faster I will go without the stroller after training with it.

Okay, so we established I had at least one blunder on this run...that being I shouldn't have run on the injury to begin with.  So, at about mile two, I'm in a little pain, dripping sweat because it's wicked humid and the diva won't sit back because she wants to be able to see all around her.  Now I'm a good mom, and I tried to get her back, but was not successful before we hit a bump (the trail has a lot of them from roots growing up under the pavement) and she bumped her head a tiny bit on the side of the stroller.  I don't think she likes it anymore.  She couldn't wait for the ordeal to be over.  Hopefully she'll give it another shot for mama's sake.  Happy trails!!!

Stats -
Miles:  3.2
Time:   31:17 (average pace of 9:45 per mile)
Location:  Quiet Waters Park Annapolis
Feeling:  Uh, not fantastic...need to lay off the ankle (but let's be honest, I probably won't)

Injuries in motion...

What is an injured athlete supposed to do?  Rest?  Uh, not these ladies.  There are degrees of injury in my book...those where you can't even move and all others.  I have one that falls into the "all others" category, though most may put it in the category that should be rested a few days. 

Back up a second though....it felt great to get back on the road with Brie today.  It's been almost a month since we put in a run together, and now things feel like they are returning to something akin to normal.  Now, let me also tell you how I injured myself - specifically how I ended up with a high ankle sprain in my right ankle and a very mild sprain in my left ankle.  This truly takes talent to do something so stupid.  I wouldn't mind this injury if I had a great tale to tell, but alas I merely miss one of the steps in front of my house on Friday.  Add my challenges to Brie still working through the IT band issue and we make quite a pair.

The run this morning was nice.  We got out early to avoid the heat, though there was no escaping the sweat inducing humidity, and headed through one of our favorite routes at Greenbury Point.  The ground was still moist from the storm last night, but that just makes the trail sections more cushioned for our legs.  So through seven miles, Brie and I caught up on the past few weeks and fell back into old patterns (injuries aside, we're still doing a little walking for Brie's IT band...I need her healthy)...including greeting all the other early morning runners and cyclists out there.  I love it!  These are the types of mornings that I live for.

So why do I mention the injury if I'm still running?  It didn't hurt a bit while I was running.  In fact yesterday it didn't hurt unless I touched it, but as I sit here logging the run I realize it's possibly a little more injured than I had thought and will have to rest it a bit if I plan to be in good shape for the Dog Days 8k next weekend and the River Valley Run 10k the following weekend.  We'll see if I can resist taking out the jogging stroller tomorrow.  Happy trails!!!

Stats -
Miles:  7.17 
Time:   1:12:23 (average pace of 10:05 per mile)
Location:  Greenbury Point, Naval Support Activity Annapolis
Feeling:  Good, more normal

Keeping up...

There are only so many hours in the day...and by the time I find at least one for myself, I'm just about passed out on my bed.  That's what it's like trying to find time to blog.  Oh well, at least I can get the runs in...I can catch up on the blogging of the runs later.  That's why I'm writing about two runs today - yesterday and today.

Yesterday can be summed up with one word....HOT!  Maryland has been under heat advisories for the last few days, and I can't seem to get up early enough to beat my early riser for a run that doesn't occur at 4am.  After nearly killing myself with the heat on Wednesday's run, I promised to limit to just a couple miles.  That's enough to help get my body back into the groove of running on the pavement every day.  So, prepped to sweat my rear end off, I headed up to run the cloverleaf at Chesapeake Preserve for this one.  I like running through that neighborhood, though admittedly there are no trees to provide shade.  It wasn't bad, but I was dripping for the rest of the day.

Today was equally hot and I needed to put in a good run, so I headed back inside to the dreadmill at the gym over at the Naval Station.  Ahhh, they had the air on just right for a good several miles.  If I hadn't started to get bored looking at the wall, I probably good have run for an hour.  Alas, the wall can only offer so much entertainment and so I called it quits at 4 miles and then rowed for a bit.  On my way back out, my car was streaked by one of the biggest red foxes I've seen in this area.  At any rate, I'm proud of the running I've been able to accomplish with the change in my life. 

So, as I head into our second weekend at home with the little one (and am anxiously looking forward to getting back in the groove with my fave running partner), this will be my last midweek nap time run.  Next week we'll be trying something new.  Happy trails!!!

Thursday Stats -
Miles:  2.52
Time:   21:22 (average pace of 8:28 per mile)
Location:  Bay Head to Chesapeake Preserve
Feeling:  Hot, sweaty, a little tight

Friday Stats -
Miles:  4.01
Time:   33:41 (average pace of 8:24 per mile)
Location:  Fitness Center at Naval Support Activity Annapolis
Feeling:  comfortable...finally

Building a routine...

The last couple weeks has been anything but usual for me.  I'm spending a lot of time playing with my new daughter and less time resting...that makes for one tired mama.  (To all my mom friends out there, I'm sorry if I ever had complained about you being tired.)  So what does all this mean for running?  It means I have to find a new groove, a new routine, that works for me, work, and more importantly my daughter.  In no way does this change my running goals.  They are very important to me and my physical and emotional health.  So 1000 miles...I'm still staring you down and on target to hit the mark a whole month early. 


Today I logged another nap time run.  Almost as soon as my little girl was sound asleep I tied on those running shoes and hit the pavement.  It was a tough one.  I've not done a lot of outdoors running this month (again, the dreadmill was the machine of choice in China) so I've got to get my lungs used to running in the humidity and pollen again.  To that end, I probably went out to hard and fast today for what I had hoped would be a six mile run, but ended up as a five and a half miler.  Oh well, close enough.

I took off in the usual "at home" direction.  I don't normally run at home in the middle of the day, so how was I to know my route is nothing but blazing sun at noon?  It's shady all other times.  Also, the smell of that dead deer from June is back.  Ewwww.  But hopefully this is the start of getting everything back in working order for the road.  August and September are busy racing months for me...October and November also for that matter...so just a couple weeks left to make sure I'm still in fine racing shape.

On another matter, the nap time run will only work as long as I've got Jay home to monitor the house.  That ends Monday.  So, we're going to have to get that jogging stroller in good working order by next week.  Happy trails!!!

Stats:
Miles:  5.4
Time:   47:24 (average pace of 8:46 per mile...slow)
Location:  Bay Head, Log Inn
Feeling:  sluggish and hot

Mom on the run...

Yuexiu Park with the latest family addition.  It was one of
the greatest moments of my life to bring her into the
family.  Perhaps someday she'll be a runner too.

It's been two weeks since my last post, but that does not mean that I've been resting.  No siree.  This has been one super active woman, and though today was the first time since leaving for China that I put hard pavement under my running shoes, I did manage to log more than 35 miles while I was overseas (which is impressive - if I may say so - because I hate jogging on the dreadmill for any length of time).  I'm just now blogging, however, because I did not take a laptop with me and it cost almost $10 to use the hotel computers for twenty minutes.  I quickly decided I would lump all the workouts together once I got home.  So here's a short recap of how things went and I'll finish up with today's run.

Proof that those were treadmill miles.

Two extremely short weeks ago my husband and I boarded a plane to China to adopt our daughter.  We spent the whole two weeks in the city of Guangzhou in Guangdong province, which is very near Hong Kong.  That means tropical, which means SUPER steamy.  In fact, most days we were there the "feels like" temperature exceeded 100.  That is not conducive to running and surviving (though I did see many Chinese who seemed to survive running in it..more power to them) so I relegated myself to the China Hotel fitness center for my two weeks of running.  At least those are the only miles I counted.  We actually walked all over the city and so I probably logged several more actual miles in the blistering heat...but oh well.  I can hardly complain because it was one of the most special times of my life, and, oh yeah I crossed another milestone - 60% of my goal in the books! :)

China Hotel pool

Guangzhou Zoo

So along with logging the treadmill miles (done mostly during nap time or before my husband and daughter were awake), we spent a lot of time at the pool (my daughter loves the pool), walking through Yuexiu and Liuhua Lake Parks, through the zoo and around random neighborhoods.  We exercised ourselves and got to know each other as a family.


Fast forward after two days of rest between the trip and my next run and we come to today.  I wasn't looking to break any land speed records or log a gazillion miles.  I just wanted to feel the pavement, get out of my head and relax for a few minutes during nap time (both my daughter and my husband).  So I tied up my shoes and just headed out to stretch my legs and enjoy.  It felt good and I'm looking forward to my next run...hopefully with the jogging stroller once we get the tires pumped up and ready to go.  Happy trails!!!

Stats (only today's are below...while in China I logged 35.55 miles)
Miles:  4.05
Time:   35:00 (average pace of 8:38 per mile)
Location:  Bay Head to Log Inn
Feeling:  Nice and smooth, a little tight in the knees but that's par for the course after long flights

The jogging stroller moms...

Today I leave for China.  Actually I leave in a couple of hours.  The bags are packed, all the details are taken care of and the boarding passes are printed (well sort of...we are checked in, but since its an international flight we have to show passports before getting the actual boarding passes).  Only one thing still needed to be done...I needed to hit my mini-goal for the week with my running.  So I strapped on the shoes (trail shoes, but I'll get to that) and headed out into yet another scorching early morning.

Since I already packed my running shoes, I ended up wearing one of my newer pairs of trail shoes this morning.  Big mistake.  I wasn't running on trails.  Not only are they not broken in, but the soles just don't mesh with pavement running.  My arches were killing me in the first mile.  By the third mile I think they gave up and just fell down with the shoe, or at least the muscles in my foot stretched a little differently.  By the end, I wasn't paying much attention to my arches because I was trying to keep the sweat from blinding me.

But who can talk about running right now?  I thought relatively little about it during the hour I was outside doing the deed.  My mind was in China, where in two days I will meet my child for the first time.  It's been a long wait and I'm excited/anxious/nervous/happy/scared/ecstatic/joyful.  This is what I thought about. Now, I'll still be running in China, but probably back on the treadmill.  And I won't be taking my laptop, so my blogging may be less regular.  But once I get back, I will be joining a new group of runners - the jogging stroller moms - and I can't wait.

Oh, yeah, and I did hit this week's mini-goal of 15 miles before jumping on the plane :)  Happy trails!!!

Stats -
Miles:  6.52
Time:  57:48 (average pace of 8:52 per mile)
Location:  Broadneck Peninsula, Bay Head, Sandy Point
Feeling:  Aside from the arches it was a good run

A run for independence...

I was both sad and relieved that there were no scheduled races on the Fourth of July this year.  I would have felt compelled to register for one had it been scheduled, but it was hot as hades out...at 6am when I did run this morning, I can't imagine what it would have been like running a race later in the morning.

This morning the run wasn't stellar, but it didn't suck...totally.  My hamstring is tight again and, let me reiterate, it was hot.  With everything as it was (and a full day of chasing after a toddler ahead of me...plus the concert, plus fireworks) I decided to take it a bit easier than I planned on the mileage.  This means I'm going to have to make up for this somewhere else.  Since I'd been heading out toward Sandy Point so much lately, I decided to head toward Cape St. Clair.  It was an easy lollipop route that landed me 3 miles on the tally sheet.  Little went through my head except "darn its hot."

The run ended on a nice note though.  I ran into a neighbor who is close to Jay and I in age, we chatted, and then my mom and the dogs came trotting out the door toward me ready for their morning walk.  So off we went and that was the pace for the day.  Independence day has always been  favorite for me...remember how the USA started and the sacrifices people make to keep it great, enjoy family and ALWAYS make sure to see the fireworks.  Happy fourth and happy trails!!!

Stats -
Miles:  3.03
Time:   25:41 (average pace of 8:28 per mile)
Location:  Broadneck Peinsula
Feeling:  Did I mention I was hot????!!!?!?!?!

Broadneck at dawn...

The alarm starting beeping at 5:05am.  That's early, for sure, but insane for running (read back to my thoughts on morning runs).  At 5:30am, when Jay's alarm starting going off so he could join me, he just turned it back off.  Here's the exchange that followed:

Me:  (flicking him on the back)
Him:  owww, why did you do that?  Why are you waking me up before 5:30?  The alarm hasn't even gone off yet.
Me:  Yes it did, you just rolled over and turned it off.
Him:  (rolling over to look at the clock and realizing I was right) Oh, I guess it's okay then.

Roughly ten minutes later we hit the road to put in the first of (hopefully) 20 miles before we get on a plane Friday afternoon.  The air was still humid, but the temperature was below 80 degrees, so I'll take it.  There were actually a couple of cold spots on the road that down right gave you goose bumps.  We headed on up toward Log Inn Road and the roads were eerily clean after all the downed limbs and leaves that littered them after Friday's storm...almost like the street sweeper had come our way.  Even the beheaded snake was gone.  Weird, but at least we didn't have to add hurdling to today's adventure.

For those of you still without power, I do want to let you know that BGE is on it and working over time (at least you get to sleep in your bed).  When we turned up Log Inn Road, there sat one of the BGE trucks on a little turn around with the driver asleep behind the wheel (mind you its only about 6am and again you are sleeping in your bed rather than on the next street you are trying to bring power back to).  I will give them credit.  Its been a difficult few days and they are really working hard to undo mother nature's fury. 

The rest of the run started to warm up a bit, so I'm glad I ignored the temptation to turn off the alarm (like Jay) and get my run in early.  Only three more days of these early mornings (hopefully) and then I will probably be relegated to the treadmill the next two weeks in China (because it's flipping hot in Guangzhou...lows in the 80s).  Happy trails!!!

Stats -
Miles:  5.5
Time:   47:22 (average pace of 8:36 per mile)
Location:  Broadneck Peninsula - Bay Head to Log Inn
Feeling:  Not back to 100% but feeling more normal

Let there be light...

Late Friday night mother nature visited our area and left an unforgettable calling card...winds gusting to 95mph, tons of lightning and ultimately no power.  When I woke up to head out for my run on Saturday morning I thought little of the fact that the power was not yet back on, afterall electricity on the Broadneck Peninsula can be very tempermental.  I figured it would just be a few more hours and then back to normal.  Boy was I wrong and that is why this entry will cover my runs for both Saturday and Sunday (a non-fantastic weekend of running).

As I was saying, Saturday morning the lights were still out but the sun was rising steadily and it was full light out at 6:00am.  I had every intention of putting in some extra miles since I had nothing pressing on the schedule for the day.  Well, I ignored my best running buddy's wise advice...particularly when running first thing in the morning...never head out on a run without reliable access to a restroom or port-o-john within a mile-ish of where you are.  Minus those things, you should have an easy place to jump off the path for a break.  Neither of those are along my typical 5-8 mile running route near home.  It makes for a long, slow run.  Lesson learned.  That less than pleasant experience aside, I'm sure I did amuse several cars that passed as I did my "OMG that was so gross, disgusting and I hate snakes more than a root canal with no novocaine" dance as I trotted passed a recently beheaded snake on the side of the road.  Man I hate those things dead or alive.  The run, however bad, also gave me the opportunity to assess the storm damage in the local area.  And no, the lights did not come back on at any time during Saturday.  Lights aren't bad to lose once in a while, but air conditioning is during 100 degree days.  It was steaming in the house as we cleaned like fiends before our upcoming  trip.

Sunday was a bit of a different experience.  After more than three weeks I finally got my weekend running partner back.  We met up at 6:00am at the B&A trail to head out for about an hour.  Brie is still having some IT band issues (only aggravated by our showing at North Face at the beginning of June) so the goal was to get in some miles without injury.  We went for a jog 5 minutes, walk 1 pace to keep from over stressing Brie's leg (she's got a triathlon coming up and we want her in tip top shape!)  It was a nice steady jog that was VERY conducive to catching up on personal gossip and all the important happenings.  We got turned around a little earlier than planned, though, when a tree blocked the whole path.  The tree we would have climbed around if there hadn't also been wires tangled up in  the tree.  Why tempt fate?  So we turned it around, jogged back to the cars and headed into town for coffee at City Dock.  I've missed my mornings with Brie.

The weekend continued with super hot temps throughout Sunday, but thankfully our power came back on late Sunday morning.  I love air conditioning almost as much as I love running.  All other things aside, I did hit 550 miles by the end of the weekend (not quite the end of the month...missed it by one day but still).  Now let's bring these temps back to normal (or at least remotely tolerable) so that I can get in another 15-20 miles before jumping on an airplane on Friday afternoon for a great two week journey.  Happy trails!!!

Stats -
Miles:  11.95
Time:   1:58:12 (the average was around 9:50ish, but don't know for certain)
Location:  Broadneck Peninsula (Saturday) & B&A Trail (Sunday)
Feeling:  I've definitely had better, but all the running related muscles were working alright