A Light at the End of the Tunnel…or Staying Healthy

I started having pains in my left leg when running back in October. I presumed it was a hamstring issue, stemming from my high hamstring and that it would either get worse causing me to stop running or it would go away. It persisted though, and just became a nagging issue through the end of December. However, let it be known that I had three PRs with this issue…including my best 5 mile at the Born to Run and my best half marathon at the Wilson Bridge both in November. So it was an issue, but one that clearly didn’t prevent me from running at my best. Or so I thought. By the end of December, I was through with it. I decided it wasn’t going to go away with my current course of action so I stopped running and made an appointment with my orthopedist. At the end of 2013, my goals for 2014 included balancing my running with other activities, i.e. cross training and strength training so that I would be a better runner. Now I am even more convinced of that goal, and I am working to make it a reality. I ran minimal miles in January and didn’t run a mile in February. The diagnosis from my orthopedist was not a hamstring issue, but a nerve issue that he thought stemmed from my lower back. I did have resident pain in my lower back but I didn’t connect it to the leg pain. I thought this was plausible, but the nerve pain could either be from lower back or piriformis syndrome. I now think it was (is) both. To date, I have been through 6 PT sessions and am in the middle of 13 chiropractic adjustments. PT was good for teaching me strengthening and stretching exercises for my core, lower back, hips and upper legs. But the pain was still there so I decided to try a chiropractor. 

At this point, I am beginning to see the light at the end of this tunnel. I am feeling stronger and getting healthier. My pain is lowering with each day, and I believe it’s either the chiropractor or time off from running. I have tried two runs in the past week – the first 8-10 minutes and the second for 15 minutes – with good success. I know that’s not going to be a magic bullet but I did want to test the waters. I still hope and pray that this issue doesn’t come back, or flare up again but I do know that’s a possibility as I try to increase distance and mileage. But as much as I know I love running, I also now know that I value being healthy over that livelihood. I have found other ways to stay active – finally using my gym membership to take classes and work out. I vary my workouts to elliptical, stationary bike, rowing, yoga, and an occasional kickboxing or Zumba class although I am very careful with my back in these types of classes. I also do core and strength work at home including squats, lunges, and a lot of stretching. I know I could always be doing more but I have a lot of variety right now and it’s hard to fit any one thing in more than 1-2 times a week. When I add running in, I’m going to have to maintain more of a strict schedule with my non-running days. Truth be told, I’m lazy some days and I am quick to push the workout to the next day. With the long, cold winter we’ve had, it’s been easy to fall into that lazy mode. I actually haven’t missed running as much as I thought I would. It’s no longer the be-all, end-all for me. I know that there is life outside running, and I’m embracing that. I want to add running back into my workout, but not for the sake of injury. I plan to run three times a week – one speedwork, one tempo, and one long slow easy run. Long may start out 4 but I need to work it up to 8-10. I have a half marathon on May 4^th that I plan to use as a test to see if I can cover the distance. I have another half on June 8^th – depending on how my return to running goes, I tentatively plan to PR in that race. But my perspective has changed greatly. I really miss the camaraderie of running with my friends, and the joy of running with some great music. I don’t miss trying to beat paces and increase mileage. I just want to run for fun, and mostly I just want it to be pain free. If I can't do that, then I am not sure it's worth it. As another aspect of cross-training, I have joined an over-30 women's soccer team! This will be my first outdoor experience since college and I'm nervous but excited. On weeks with a soccer game, I will consider this my 'speed' workout. I know I'm not in soccer shape but my goals are to be competitive with the other women on my team and the league, have fun and stay active! 

I'm not sure how to wrap this up, other than to say I have learned a lot about myself these last few months and weeks. I have challenged myself in ways other than running, while giving my body and mind time to recharge and focus on priorities. I hope that's been helpful, but time will tell!

2013 Wrap Up

The holidays were a whirlwind. It was pretty typical, from a tradition perspective. At the same time, it was untraditional in some respects. This was the first year since Keely was an infant (2 months old) that we traveled out of our home for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. For those keeping track, that’s 10 years! It was also the first time in my life that we went to church on Christmas Day instead of Christmas Eve. For those keeping track on that one, that’s 37 years (!) since I had another birthday right before Christmas.

We had the Florida Donovan Torviks visiting us this year, so we had four additional people at our house from the 21^st to the 2^nd…minus the time we were all in New Jersey (5-6 nights). We enjoyed having them stay with us, and the kids all got lots of cousin time. We even got all of the Donovan cousins together in New Jersey for a couple of days. This holiday season might also go down as one of the most unphotographed…I just don’t feel like we took a lot of photos.

The kids were very blessed, err…spoiled, this Christmas. They both received iPod Nanos from Mom & Dad along with some iTunes gift cards. They got lots of other gifts from Santa, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. One of my favorite things about this Christmas though is their generosity with each other and their cousins. They took money that they make from odd jobs (Quinn from leaf raking and lawn mowing, Keely from cat sitting) and used the money to buy gifts for each other and each of their cousins. They weren’t gifts of high monetary value (love Five Below…each gift was $5) but they were well thought out gifts for each person. They also wrapped and labeled each gift themselves. This wasn’t something they were prompted to do, it was something they chose to do on their own. Once in a while, you get a glimpse of the person they are becoming and this was one of those times. They got to truly experience the joy of gift giving, instead of just receiving and I think it was wonderful.

So what else? We spent five nights in New Jersey, and as seems to be typical had many Christmas celebrations. We spent Christmas Eve and morning with the Donovans. Another non-tradition was having pizza on Christmas Eve for dinner. That’s not the norm, but it was an easy and non-stressful way to feed the 10 of us. I’m all for non-stress, as this year especially I felt Christmas and the weeks leading up to it to be a series of tasks I had to manage and complete. It felt like a chore, and it wasn’t all that enjoyable. In any event, as it typically does it all came together and I had no reason to stress. So back to Christmas Day, after opening presents and having a nice home cooked breakfast (Ryan and I were on that one) we showered and dressed for church. After church, we headed to my parents for the rest of the day and night. We celebrated with dinner, drinks, dessert, etc. with all of my aunts, uncles and cousins and it was quite enjoyable. It was a smaller, manageable group and this year it was catered which made it much less stressful for my mom (that’s where I get my tendency to stress!). The next morning, we did Christmas morning all over again on a smaller scale with Nana, Papa and Aunt Annie. Unfortunately, Quinn got sick that morning – though it was after he opened his presents. It seems he had a small 24 hour bug so we quarantined him at my parents’ (thanks to Nana for taking care of him) and went ice skating with Keely. The next day, we went bowling and Quinn was feeling up to coming along. Keely also had a sleepover at Annie’s and they had a blast. Friday night we had a lovely dinner with Uncle Joe and J.R. and that completed seeing my mom’s side of the family. Saturday it was back to the Donovans’ to see the North Carolina bunch and have all of the cousins together. 

Sunday was a special day – Cecilia’s baptism. I was honored to be her Godmother and it was a nice ceremony followed by lunch at Grandma & Grandpa’s. Then we headed back home to Virginia…we were happy to have a few days at home before school and work started back up.New Year’s was pretty quiet…but we had fun ringing in 2014 with some games and appetizers for dinner. Oh, and in the course of all of these events, Lois and I managed to run 30+ miles together  :)

It was a lovely holiday season…surrounded by those we love, and that is what is most important. We are very blessed indeed!

November PRs

From a running perspective, November was a great month for me. I started with the huge PR on my half marathon time at the Wilson Bridge Half, finishing in 2:01:28. I am so very close to my goal of beating 2 hours, and I know that’s going to be a reality in 2014. I also entered two other ‘races’ and had PRs in both. I put races in quotes because one was an event with the moms running group I belong to (MRTT) and wasn’t an official event, but we did time ourselves so I still count it.

A couple of ladies decided it would be fun to have a mile race just to see how fast we could run if we were only running for one mile. I was always curious too, because I never just do one mile. If I put it all out there, what could I do that mile in? So we did just that. I knew it would hurt, and I knew I needed to push myself.  I started out a little faster that I should have and faded a bit, but it was hard to know how to pace for a one mile race. I actually think it would have been easier on a track because you can easily see how you are doing for each quarter mile (lap). The weather was very cold and windy, and we ended up with the headwind the entire mile. Excuses, excuses, I know so here is the time: 7:37. I think without the headwind, I could have run closer to 7 minutes. I started out running a 7:15 pace and faded, and I think that was mostly due to the headwind. It was so strong that I was crying from the wind. Anyways, we are planning to do this every few months to see how we improve so I’m eager to try again and see how close I can get to a 7 minute mile…and gasp, even possibly a sub-7 minute mile. I never ran the mile hard in high school so I have no idea how fast I was when I was younger, but I’m happy to be able to push the paces in my (gasp, again) late 30s.

Lastly, I entered a 5 mile race in Freehold while we were in New Jersey for Thanksgiving. I have never run a 5 mile race so this was an obvious PR for me. But I did set a goal to run sub 45 minutes (9 minute miles or better). The course starts out downhill and then has some rolling hills, a flat loop around a lake and then finishes up the hills you ran down in the beginning. I knew to pace myself for the hills at the end, and I didn’t think a negative split would be possible so I wanted to start out fast and give myself some breathing room at the end for those hills. I did just that, starting out at about 8 minute mile pace. Maybe more like 8:15 pace, but it felt very comfortable. I kept looking at my Garmin thinking I’d be slipping with my pace, but I held very steady. The pace felt comfortable the entire race so I just went with it. I did slow down a bit in the last 2 miles because of those hills, but I still maintained around an 8:30 pace. I ended up crushing my goal and finishing in 41:28 – an average of 8:19 for 5 miles! I was 7^th in my age group…it was a small race but still, a top 10 finish in women aged 30-39.  I was very proud of myself, and I felt pretty accomplished. I think with a smart attack, I can beat 40 minutes in my next 5 miler. Of course, I have no idea when that will be.

While I'm on the subject of running, here are my goals for 2014:

Break 2 hours for a Half Marathon – see notes above. I definitely think this is an achievable goal for my next half.

Run 1,000 miles – this should be very attainable, considering I’m going to break 800 for 2013 and I started out the year running pretty minimally. I just need to be more consistent – and if I end up doing a fall marathon again like I am considering, I will crush that. Even without a marathon, I can still do a 1,000 with just 20 miles per week – very manageable.

Run a 5K for time – After my 5 mile PR, I am very curious how fast I could run a 5K. With my one mile time below 8 minutes, I am pretty confident I can break 24 minutes but I’m not sure how much below that I can push. Again, it’s just a matter of pushing myself and I almost never just run 3.1 miles so I really don’t know what I am capable of in that distance.

Strength train and cross train more – I believe being well rounded will make me a better runner. I’ve already started to include yoga once a week and I love it. It’s so good to stretch and flex, and I know it’s helping my sore muscles. I also want to include some strength training to build up my muscle endurance. I used to do that once a week but I have gotten away from it when I started running consistently. I want to incorporate that once again and I know it will help my running.

Break 4 hours in a marathon – I know I said I wasn’t sure I would run a marathon again, and I’m still not sure. But I have this nagging feeling that I can improve my time, and I feel I would be regret it if I didn’t give it a shot. I think a Spring Marathon is too much, but I feel a Fall Marathon would work for me. The only thing that worries me is my left foot. I’m not sure the bunionectomy can hold up for another marathon training cycle, especially if I am pushing myself to faster paces in hopes of a better time. So this is a maybe goal, I will likely decide once 2014 is underway.

School and Health Updates

The first quarter of school ended in early November, followed by the usual requisite two days off of school. Report cards and conferences followed.

For Quinn, there were no conferences but there were also no surprises. I have to say, after the first quarter at Poe I am pretty pleased. We receive progress reports from most of Quinn’s teachers every two weeks. If things were going south, we would know pretty quickly. However, we had nothing to worry about. When you open up the math reports and see that your child has over a 100% average, you just know he’s going to be fine. He received all A’s and one A-, good enough to place him on the all-A Honor Roll. There was a ceremony at school to acknowledge the all-A and A/B Honor Rolls…but he forgot to tell us what time, or he never knew what time it would be. Turns out it was held during first period and we would love to attend in the future. Quinn seems to have adjusted well to middle school and he’s doing great.

We did have conferences for Keely. She is doing really well. Her teacher really enjoys having her in class. She seems to be behaving nicely, not getting too caught up with her friends and concentrating on getting her work done. I do think she strives to be a good student, but sometimes distractions get in the way of that. Thankfully, 4^th grade seems to be going well. Her report card was good too, mostly 3s and 4s. From her teacher’s remarks in the conference, I would have expected more 4s but I guess he wanted to give her room to improve. I’m not sure all the teachers are on board with the new grading system – it’s supposed to be rating children according to what they know at the end of the quarter and then rating them independently each quarter on what they are learning. In any event, her grades were still good and it’s not worth making a fuss over. A 4^th grade report card is not going to make any difference in her college applications.

The kids also had their well checks, which coincided with birthdays. They are both doing well, in fact we had not been at the doctor at all (save one visit for Keely’s acid reflux) since their well check last year. That’s a good sign that they are healthy and well. Our two main issues (and they are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things) are Keely’s acid reflux and Quinn’s nose bleeds. We monitor Keely’s acid and she takes Zantac each night to keep it under control. It seems every fall Quinn’s nose bleeds are at their worst and we talk to the doctor about them, then they die down. Sure enough, that’s what happened again. The doctor recommended Quinn get a set of blood work done now to see if he has any clotting issues, in addition to the regular blood panels (including cholesterol). It’s no rush, but we will get that done in the next month or so. He’s not anxious because he hates needles and blood (makes the bloody noses very fun…not!). As for weight and height, they are both around the 50% for their ages. Quinn is due for a very big growth spurt, and I even think he’s grown since the visit. I judge that pretty unscientifically though based on how he compares to my own height. Let’s just say he’s very close to looking me eye to eye, and I’ve never been anxious to reach that day. I have to accept it though, because it’s happening and very soon, he will be taller than me. Keely is not as petite as she was last year but still very normal for her age. She didn’t like being called petite anyways so that’s a good development. I have the numbers but I think the kiddos are past the age where I report their heights and weights so I will keep them for their memory books. Suffice it to say, they are doing well and very health and we are very grateful!

The Weitz Family Visits Washington

After what seemed like many months of planning and a few failed attempts at picking a weekend, we finally had our 2^nd weekend visit from Jess, Jon and Ethan. They arrived on the train Friday afternoon and stayed until early Sunday afternoon. It was a quick trip, but we packed in a lot of fun! 

On Friday, we had a nice dinner out at Silver Diner. Perfect for kids and great food, it ended up being a perfect choice. On Saturday morning, we drove up to Clemyjontri Park in McLean. I had a feeling Ethan would love this park, and I think it’s safe to say I was right. Quinn and Keely like it too, but we only go there when we have little ones in town. Quite honestly, they are just too old for parks but they like to live vicariously through the younger friends and cousins we bring there. 

We spent about an hour there and then it was time to head home and get Keely ready for her soccer game. After the game, we decided to head downtown to visit the Air & Space Museum. The museum was a hit with all, and we spent about 2 hours there before heading home to prepare dinner. Insert my WWBHM post here, because that picks up our activities from dinner through about 9 AM when I finished running the following morning. I was so happy to have 3 extra people in my cheering squad on Sunday morning! After my race, we had brunch at Jukebox Diner. Before we knew it, the time had come to bring our guests to Union Station for their return train back to NYC. It was too quick, but there were a lot of laughs and a ton of fun. We are so glad to live close enough to see them – though not as often as we would like, it’s working out to once or twice a year and I know I look forward to these visits.

Other fun stuff to mention – teaching Jess and Jon Anomia (and Jess getting a little too enthusiastic about playing!), teaching Jon to rainbow loom, and we can't forget Keely’s salon complete with massages, manicures, hair styling and even magazines to read in the waiting room!

It was definitely a fun time, and I’m so glad they were able to make the trip down to see us. Next time, we’re looking forward to visiting New York and Brooklyn, or even meeting in the middle for a getaway (Philly is the most likely place). I don’t know exactly when it will be, but I do know I look forward to the next time we get to hang with the Weitz Family :)

Half Marathon #3

On Sunday, I ran my 3^rd half marathon, the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon. This race was supposed to be run on October 6^th but was postponed for 5 weeks due to the government shutdown. I’ve recently read that the November 10^th slot was the only possible weekend that worked for all 5-7 jurisdictions involved between the original date and the end of the year. I’m happy that they found that date and were able to hold the race – this was my only fall half planned and I wanted to run it to see what I could do with my time. The postponement was frustrating but I think I prepared well nonetheless.

The hamstring soreness that I had been experiencing was diminishing run by run as the date approached. I honestly think that all the stretching, heat and incorporating some yoga into my routine helped immensely. In the end, it didn’t bother me at all on race day!

Pre-race, I had penne a la vodka with garlic bread for dinner. In hindsight, I am not sure that was the best decision. I had already increased carbs all week and I think the increased gluten the night before the race left me bloated and unsettled. I think it would have been better if we used brown rice pasta – though arguably not as tasty. Also in retrospect, I did not eat enough calories the day before the race and I expended more energy than I typically do. This was not a good combination and something I will do better with next time. Hydration wise, I was fine – drinking coconut water and Gatorade all day but calorically I dont' think I consumed enough.

The morning of the race, I had a 4 AM wakeup call. I didn’t feel too well when I stepped out of bed. I had gotten max 5 hours of sleep, and those were restless hours. I felt dizzy and weak, never a good sign when you are asking your body to output a ton of energy. I knew I needed calories to help balance me out, and the banana and two pieces of toast helped. My body burned right through those calories though, and I was already hungry again on the bus ride to the start. This race is hard to time, because it starts at 7 AM but we arrived at National Harbor to catch the bus to the start at about 5:20 AM. I drank 32 ounces of Gatorade leading up to the start of the race. I tried to eat some of a Stinger waffle on the bus ride, but I felt nauseous and wasn’t able to get it all down. The Gatorade was about the only thing my stomach was tolerating at that point, most likely due to nerves. It was also chilly that morning, and I’m not sure why but my muscles kept shaking and I found myself having to force my teeth not to chatter. Again, I suspect this was the lack of calories. Anyways, the race time came and the starting corrals were pretty uncrowded. I started the race with Beth though I suspected we wouldn’t stay together the whole time and I was right – we ran the first mile together (way faster than I wanted to start out because it was downhill) and then parted ways.

Other than my first fast mile (9 minutes), I ran a well executed race. I slowed myself down for Miles 2 though 8 and dialed it in, running a pretty consistent 9:30 pace. I did get hungry pretty early on, and ate my first snack (Honey Chews) at about 3.5 miles in. I also took the Gatorade and Water at all water stops. Sometime after 5 miles, I felt better and that’s when I was able to run most consistently. My A goal was to beat 2 hours (9 minute miles) but I knew I wanted to start slow and conserve energy for the last few miles. That’s exactly what I ended up doing. I hit the bridge which is Mile 9 and one of the only hills on the course (the rest are rolling) feeling great. I was passing people up and down that bridge. I hit the 10 mile marker at 1:34ish and started to do some quick calculations in my head. With a fast 5K to finish, I could come close to my goal. I turned on the jets, continued passing people and saw paces in the 7s and 8s on my Garmin. I ended up running about a 26 minute 5K, pretty quick for me considering it was the end of a half marathon. I finished with some juice left in my legs, and so so close to my A goal with a time of 2:01:28. If I could have shaved 6-7 seconds off each mile, I could have beat 2 hours. That’s easily attainable for me in my coming races. I now know I can do it, I just have to execute another good smart race and I’ll get it done.

Overall, I really liked this race. It was point to point, and I wasn’t sure how I would like that but I did enjoy the course. The GW Parkway is one of my favorite places to run, the race size was smallish (under 2,000 runners this year) and it was a well managed race. I am not sure if I will do it again, but I’d say the chances are good that I will do it again sometime in the future. The weather ended up being perfect – starting in the low 40s and ending right about 50 and sunny.

My race recovery was a little tough, I think mostly due to the 4AM wakeup call and not getting enough rest after the race. I was pretty knocked out through Monday night, and ended up not feeling too great on Monday (stomach wise). I’m starting to wonder if 13.1 leaves my immune system weakened, but I’m not sure I could have done anything more to prevent that letdown. It’s definitely something I want to figure out though, because I can’t get sick after each half. What I also know now is that the half is a distance I really enjoy. It’s enough distance that I feel accomplished but not so much that my body is shredded. That’s not to say I won’t do other distances – I like the 10MI and I haven’t yet ruled out another full marathon – but I definitely want to keep focusing on 13.1 and better my time.

I’ll do a post on my 2014 plans, but I already have 2 halfs lined up for February/March, plans for races in April and am thinking beyond as well. First up though, one more half for 2013. I will be pacing my sister through her first half marathon. I’m excited for that, I hope I can be a good pacer and coach through the race – and I’m proud of her for working towards this goal! 

Halloween Wrapup

Another Halloween come and gone, and I can't say I'm sad. It's just not my holiday. It always seems like there is drama with costumes, and I'm never happy with the discussions in the weeks leading up to it. Keely wanted to be a butterfly, then a ladybug, then some sort of winged insect...then she ended up with a fairy costume. Quinn didn't really want to dress up at all, but he wanted the candy. He didn't decide until the very very last minute...and ended up as a traveling musician with a guitar on his back. The guitar didn't last long though, but he must have looked semi-dressed up because people still gave him candy :)

The kids got more candy than we could ever need. We're still going through it, and I think another batch may be coming to work with me soon. Keely went around the neighborhood with her best friend Julia. This was the first year we let Quinn go on his own with a friend. They took scooters and went from our house on one side of the neighborhood to his friend's house on the other side, grabbing candy from each house as they traveled. He had SO much candy...because he was able to make it quickly from one house to another via scooter.