Moving right along January 3rd-9th

[Jolt]

45-minute trail run/walk on packed snow today. I felt SLOW--not sure if it's because of doing less running lately or because running on snow is a little harder work than on bare dirt. Now I have to get ready for my very first night shift ever--clinical starts tonight and my placement this semester involves some nights, which I have never done before. Fortunately the hospital is just down the street, so I won't have to deal with traveling a long time when I'm tired at the end of the shift.

[OakLeaf]

Mile repeats x 3. I wasn't looking forward to the damp and cold, but I reminded myself of the weather some of you are having to deal with!

I'm seeing a PT on Tuesday for my feet/hip/everything He comes highly recommended by my LMT, so I'm hopeful for some good insights and strategies.

[spindizzy]

Good luck Oak!

Jolt..nights aren't so bad..when you're young. When I started having trouble sleeping in the daytime, I knew it was time to get a "day" job.

My short run today was positive balmy compared to last week (-30C, lots of wind) today it was only -9C, wind about 20km/hr. But bright and sunny. Did 5.5k in 30 min - a 5::25 pace. My focus over the last few months has been the bike - I've managed to keep my run pace relatively the same.

[zoom-zoom]

5 miles in SUNSHINE...aaaahhh...26ºF with 19º windchill...quite comfy. Looking forward to warmer temps next week so that the roads will be clear and I can ditch the Yaktrax for a while.

[Grog]

Ah!

After last Sunday's painful run, with my strained groin muscle, I rested all week, even restricting fast walking, and went on the trainer twice (what torture when you can't even stand up to pedal!). I ran across the street twice to catch a bus and it was painful both times, but yesterday I jogged just a few meters to see how it would feel and it seemed fine. Sort of.

So I went out for a jog today. I decided before going that I would alternate running and walking for 1 minute each, for 15 minutes, and keep my stride as short as I could, being careful to always land my feet below my hips and not to stretch forward.

It went well! I ended up going for 20 minutes. Running was uncomfortable but not painful, as long as I kept my stride short.

So tomorrow I'll go for longer, maybe 45 minutes, but with the same walk-run routine. I won't push it. I'll treat next week as a rest week, but still run.

I'm getting excited about the prospect of signing up for a marathon. Has anyone here ever done the Capital City Marathon in Olympia, WA?

[indigoiis]

Yay Grog! I also rested a few days this week due to a cold. I did 3.6 today with my DH on a very big hill route. I used my VFFs and it was a great run! About 20 degrees F here.

[Crankin]

Good luck with your schedule, Jolt. I can't imagine having to work at night. How is this going to impact your job at the nursing home?
You must be getting close to finishing, though.
I am in a weekend class this weekend; holistic approaches to pain and stress. It's an expressive therapy course and I don't know one person in it. Plus, half of the students are undergrads. Not sure how that happened, since it's a 600 level class. So, while dealing with the weirdness of being out of my little cohort of counseling psych friends, I am learning some cool things to use with my clients. But some of this is a little too "out there" for me. She's teaching us some yogic breathing that makes me feel like I'm suffocating. Guess I won't be using that with clients.
No exercise today. I am sore all over from running, a hard trainer workout , and skiing. Will be running on the TM tomorrow, hopefully before I go to class.

[rocknrollgirl]

We did a 30 min trail run today after I worked out in the pool this morning. My hair was still a bit damp and froze a little, but other than that it was a nice run. I think it was about 20 degrees and a bit windy, but nice in the woods.

Mt biking tomorrow

[Urlea]

Been pretty tired today, didn't sleep the greatest last night, probably because I was excited to run this morning. Late last week Maggie found out about a few ultra runners in our area doing group runs together & we were able to join them today for 16miles of a moderately hilly long-run out in the country.

Having never met them before & with all three of them being male I wasn't quite sure how it would go. Could we keep up? Will they be annoyed by anyone talking? What if I have to toot? Can I still video blog my run? Stuff like that.

After the first few miles though I was having a blast!! Such a great group of guys, quite conversational & our paces were matched relatively well.

Around mile 10ish one of the guys was starting to lag a little bit. I just assumed he was getting low on hydration or fuel so we took a short walking fueling break. He mentioned it was the meds giving him troubles & went on to tell me he has Hodgekin's Lymphoma. I was shocked to find out here he was running 16miles in -13F only a few days after having CHEMO! I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind around how much passion he must have for running to work through it all. Wow.

Anyway, we ended the run having gained 3 like-hearted comrades. I am looking forward to more treks with them. It's nice to have more ppl to run w/ and others navigating instead of just me.

Grog Glad to hear you are healing well & easing back into it!

[Jolt]

Good luck with your schedule, Jolt. I can't imagine having to work at night. How is this going to impact your job at the nursing home?
You must be getting close to finishing, though.

I'm actually no longer working at the nursing home--got laid off last month b/c they were reducing the number of beds so had to cut staff. Bummer, but on the other hand it leaves me that much more time to focus on school. So, that isn't an issue with scheduling for clinical. Just this semester and then I will be graduating and taking the boards to become certified as an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (and then hopefully being able to find a job in a timely fashion...without having to move too far if I can help it). As it turned out last night I was only there for the first half of the shift b/c things were so quiet after the first few hours that my preceptor said I might as well take off.

[Crankin]

Wow, you are almost done, Jolt. I actually know a few people that have been hired at MGH.
I ran for 25 minutes on the TM at 6 AM. It was an interval program, with some walking, but considering the time, I felt OK.
Gotta go into my class now.

[Grog]

Urlea, I love your reports.

When my brother was a kid he had bone cancer in his leg, and a few of the bones in his leg were replaced by metal prosthetics. (They are inside, all you can see are scars and 25 years later now he's just fine.) Anyway, he had pretty heavy duty chemo for many many months, those were the early 1980s and chemo was a lot harsher back then. Basically, he would spend Thursday through Sunday in the hospital vomiting, he actually would start to get sick on Wednesday from the anticipation. Yet, as soon as he came home Sunday afternoon he'd jump on his bike and ride in endless circles in our driveway. (We had a farm, thus a huge driveway.) It was the best thing on earth for him. I recall that the doctors disapproved of that at first, and then they wisened up and realized that the energy and feeling of normality he got from riding his bike were worth the risk of a fall.

Running is probably keeping that same feeling of normality for your running friend. My thoughts are with him and I wish him the best. It's not a very good disease to have, but he seems to be in the right spirit to fight it. I hope all goes well. Chemo is an awful thing, but probably better than the alternative...

[katluvr]

As usual a little behind on posting...
Friday I had a 5+ miler. It was 1 mile warm-up/easy then 3 X 1mile of tempo w/ 1/4 mile recovery and then cool down.
Weather was cool...but sunny. I had a REALLY good run. Ended up with 5.5 miles and in 57 mins. Pretty speedy for me. My tempo pace should be about 10...but just can't seem to run AT that pace. Mostly about 9:30 - 9:40. So I just went with it cuz I felt good. That was the best I have felt for running in a while. I was pretty darn happy w/ my total time/avg pace and how I felt running at tempo.
Saturday I ran w/ my friend--first time runner for her first 1/2 marathon. Trust me if it was NOT for her I would of not ran. It was the Disney 1/2 and the weather was miserable. And you have to be out there in the open cold for HOURS before. I wore more layers than I have ever worn knowing I would be running slower than my normal pace and that we might end up walking. It was a good thing, too. I was cold. So we have real winter in Florida. It was sleeting at the start. That wasn't' so bad cuz at least I was not wet. BUt it turned to drizzle. My jacket did a good job keeping me dry. But even w/ my running gloves on my hands were so cold they hurt really bad. But she finished! I know it was tough on her...but man being out there in that weather for as long as I (3:23) was and not really "heating" up...I was miserable. I sure hope my marathon day is not like it was today (Sunday) as Disney. Actually it wasn't as bad. It was colder for the start...29 degree, LOTS of wind so def a wind chill, but the sun did come out today, so hopefully that helped some.

Here's to a new week of running!

[colby]

Damn, kat, that sounds chilly. Someone on my Facebook friends list was visiting family in Florida for the new year and was commenting about how cold it was, too. We're running in the 20s here, too, but we signed up for it by buying a house in the NW Way to hang in there, though.

[Bike Chick]

Did a 3 mile run yesterday in the SUNSHINE!!! It was 17 degrees but it felt great to be outside.