April update – Working on Mountain Goat status

April was a whirlwind of hikes (18 miles at Stone Mountain and 13 miles at South Mountain) and races (Rock ‘n’ Roll Raleigh and the Country Music Half Marathon) totaling 9,385′ of elevation gain! When I laid out my proposed April schedule, my physical therapist said “that’s a lot” but half-way through April, I moved to fewer physical therapy sessions, with only one currently scheduled for the end of May. The game plan, now that my strength has improved, is to wait until I finish my (even crazier) June running / hiking plans to begin truly working on the agility and pivoting that will be necessary to get me back to playing soccer later this summer. 

I’m just over a week away from the Trailblaze Challenge and my amazing supporters have helped me raise over $2850 for the Make-A-WIsh Foundation. I have officially surpassed my goal and truly appreciate all of the support I’ve received from family, friends and co-workers throughout the last few months of training. I’m still trying to figure out how I want to commemorate the official hike, but I’m currently thinking of doing something on Instagram, so make sure to follow me and cross your fingers that I will have cell phone reception out there!

Resolution Updates
Walk the dogs for at least 30 minutes, 5 days a week – How does non-existent sound? I’ve definitely been neglecting this resolution a lot. I am getting outside with the dogs more – while I’m working in the yard, they’re running around playing with each other or running the fence line racing the neighbor’s dogs, and they’ve been able to have a lot more access to the outdoors while I’m at work now that the weather is cooperating again, but I haven’t been purposefully taking them for walks, so for this month, I’ve got a big ol’ Goose egg

Drink more water – Still struggling with this one a bit too – I’ve been using an app to track my water intake, but there were some days when I looked at it and realized I hadn’t recorded anything for the last two days, so I had to go back and try to do an estimate. I need to get back to accurately tracking this again in May.
12 / 30 days drinking at least 39 oz. of water

2,015 miles in 2015 – Surprisingly, April was my second-lowest average daily miles so far this year, with just 5 miles per day (last month, I hit an average of 6 miles per day). I expected April to be a bigger month given all of my weekends were filled with either a long hike or a half marathon, but we did have an abundance of rainy days, which made my weekday average slip quite a bit.
151 miles in April for a total of 623 miles so far in 2015

How did your April goals go?

Country Music Half Marathon – Nashville, TN (2015)

Apparently this race is not called the Rock ‘n’ Roll Nashville race (even though it is a Rock ‘n’ Roll event held in Nashville), but regardless of the name, we got to wander through the streets of Nashville and go up (and up and up and up) all of the hills around town too! My Garmin actually had the elevation gain at 574′ while we lost 593′ so while it apparently felt like we went up forever and never came back down, that was not the actual case.

Thursday, I headed to the expo, and again I found it to be very well organized, and rather quiet, especially given the number of people who were wandering the downtown streets of Nashville. By Thursday, the weather had changed from rain to potential serious thunderstorms and the possibility of tornados and Friday didn’t bring much of a change to that, though we did start receiving updates from Rock ‘n’ Roll about when we would know more about the severe weather plans, with a final update planned for 5:00am Saturday morning. Friday night was a big hockey night, so I knew I might be staying up later than I normally would before a race, so I laid out all of my clothes, filled my water bottles & put them back in the fridge so they would be cold, realized that I didn’t have my bib belt (safety pins to the rescue!) and tried to figure out what to wear after the race, since it was likely going to be raining the entire time.

When my alarm went off around 4:45am Saturday, the weather report changed to rain around race start time (7:00am) followed by lots of clouds and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Since I was on my own for this race, and because I was staying at a hotel near Opryland, I opted to take the shuttle down to the start line. It was an extra $20, but meant that I didn’t have to figure out parking at LP Field or how to get to the bag check / start line from there. There were 3 shuttle options and I decided to aim for the middle one just in case I got there a bit late, I would still have one more option. I ended up on the 5:15am shuttle and made it to the bag check line before 6:00. Since I still had an hour before the race was scheduled to start, I headed into the first hotel I saw and just killed some time, ate a peanut butter bar and used their indoor bathroom before gathering my stuff to head out to bag check and on to the start line. As I was breaking out my throwaway rain jacket (kept me warm at the start line, but mostly unnecessary), I realized that while I had packed my water belt, my water bottles that I had so meticulously prepared the night before, were still in the refrigerator in my hotel room… so much for planning ahead! The good news was that I still had my GU, so I could still fuel during the race, but I would just have to rely on the water stops instead of using my water bottles.

I found my corral pretty easily and had about 15 minutes to kill before the race would start, so I found a corral 19 volunteer and she graciously allowed me to take a picture of her sign in front of a beautiful church.

It took us about 30 minutes (maybe a little less) to get to the start line, but since we were standing on a hill, it made for an interesting picture of downtown Nashville as we moved toward the start – this is just one corral in front of me.


Soon enough, my corral was at the start line, and I was able to position myself right near the front of the corral, which is something I highly recommend trying at some point. It’s a little like being in the front row of a roller coaster – you get a whole different perspective than those who are in the middle!


After a short countdown, we were off! It was fairly flat in this section and we went down a few blocks, made a turn and then headed back up the hill we were all originally waiting on. When I was in the corral, I was on the far end of the road, so I couldn’t really see any of the leaders coming through, but it was fun to double-back on the starting corrals like that because you got an immediate boost from those who were still waiting to get to start their race.

  • Mile 1 – 11:19
  • Mile 2 – 10:31
  • Mile 3 – 10:19
  • Mile 4 – 10:37
  • Mile 5 – 10:15
  • Mile 6 – 10:13
  • Mile 7 – 12:14
  • Mile 8 – 10:32
  • Mile 9 – 10:40
  • Mile 10 – 10:56
  • Mile 11 – 10:08
  • Mile 12 – 12:01
  • Mile 13 – 10:45
  • Last .27 – 8:50

Average Pace: 10:47
Official Time: 2:22:42

I don’t have any particular reason that I can think of that mile 7 was so much slower than my other miles, but I do know that once during one of the water stops, I stopped to take in a full GU, so that could have been it. It was definitely more challenging to coordinate my GU intake with the available water stops. Instead of being able to do my 4:1 ratio and basically ignore the water stops, I had to plan ahead to start taking the GU as I approached a water stop. I did make the mistake of trying to take a GU without water early in the race, but that was quickly thrown out once I realized it was really hard to swallow without some water! Definitely not the end of the world, but I certainly prefer to have my water belt with me instead.

As we were cresting our last hill, we were treated by this guy giving high fives and encouraging runners to finish the last hill before we went across the bridge and headed into LP field. 

After crossing the final bridge, we made a quick turn down to LP Field. The biggest letdown of the day was that there was no “finish line” – there were two timing mats and then a bunch of people standing around, but nothing really to indicate that the race was now over. I feel really bad for the first-timers – there’s nothing like heading toward the finish line of your first race and this one was basically just run until there’s a wall of people and then you know you’re done.

The weather turned out to be great for the race! It was actually a little warm for me (mid-60’s) and I definitely didn’t pack any sunscreen in my drop bag, so after wandering around the festivities at LP Field, I had the medics give me some ice for my knee and then grabbed a shuttle back to the hotel. Most people who had hotel rooms in downtown opted to take the bridge back downtown and I did wander over that way a little bit and got a picture of the full stadium.

 

The shirt design for this race followed the themes of the others, featuring a country musician including cowboy hat, guitar and microphone and the finishers medal features cowboy boots and guitar strings. One unique benefit of this particular race was a concert by Martina McBride on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena. I’m not really a country music fan, so I opted for other activities, but I saw some pictures from the concert and everyone who went seemed to have a good time.

Nashville was definitely a happening place while I was there. Broadway street was packed from the time I arrived Thursday afternoon well through our race Saturday night and even where I was up near Opryland, there were tour buses and people everywhere. You can definitely find things to do in Nashville! Tune in later this week for a recap of my tourist time in Nashville.

March update – Let’s run!

March brought a few more races, Rock ‘n’ Roll DC and the Elizabeth 8k, warmer weather and more hiking. After the half marathon, my physical therapy sessions moved down to once a week and we started working on agility drills. The drills aren’t as hard as the leg lifts, but they did make me sore. A few weeks ago, I started with a ladder drill which has four components – high knees (forward & sideways) and quick feet (two in / two out and forward / backward) – I’ve done this twice now and the first time, my knee was sore for almost two days after the drill, but I did it Tuesday afternoon and while I could feel it in my knee as I was finishing my last two sets (just on the sideways high knees), after I iced it, I didn’t feel anything else, so I’m definitely making progress. The other move they had me trying was the “ice skater” which makes me appreciate how hard skaters work – I had to do three sets of one minute each and that was rough! In the words of my therapist, my schedule for April is “a lot”

  • April 4: 18 mile hike
  • April 12: Rock ‘n’ Roll Raleigh
  • April 18: 22 mile hike
  • April 25: Rock ‘n’ Roll Nashville

To be fair… I did warn them that my goal was to accomplish the 28 mile hike in May, so I’m not sure why this seems out of place… Yes, I added the half marathons, but I would have been hiking those weekends if I wasn’t running, so I’ll probably be covering a shorter distance than I would if I was hiking!

I also want to highlight the great support I’ve gotten from friends, family and co-workers who are all helping me reach my goal of raising $2,500 for Make-A-Wish for the Trailblaze Challenge in May. Over the last two weeks, I’ve raised almost $1,000 and I only have about $500 to go to hit my goal, so a big THANK YOU to everyone who has donated so far!!

Resolution Updates
Walk the dogs for at least 30 minutes, 5 days a week – I’m still way off on this one, but I have been outside with the dogs most days of the week the past two weeks, just not formally walking them. They love to run around and play with each other / run the fence line with the neighbors’ dogs while I’m outside working on my raised garden beds or mowing the lawn, so while my official totals are lower, I do feel better knowing they’ve been able to get some exercising playing together.
3 walks / 31 days – 8.3 miles

Drink more water – March was a rough month for this one too. For some reason, I’ve had quite a few days when it’s been hard to force myself to drink a lot of water. I’ve definitely found it’s harder to do when I’m working from my home office, so that’s something I’ll continue to focus on going forward, but I think overall, I’m definitely more hydrated than I’ve been in the past.
24 / 31 days drinking at least 39 oz. of water

2,015 miles in 2015 – coming out of February, I was trying to average 5.66 miles per day to get caught back up on the slow(er) start to the year. I’ve definitely picked it up in March, with an average of 6.02 miles per day. I still only hit or exceeded my goal in 9 out of 31 days, but in 5 of those 9 days, I doubled or even tripled the mileage, so I’m catching up a bit.
186.5 miles in March for a total of 472.2 miles so far in 2015

How did your March goals go?

February Recap – getting stronger

February was an interesting month – I got another race under my belt with the Super Bowl 4-miler and actually finished it 1:42 faster than my best in 2013 which is pretty impressive on a bum knee (that was before I got the official diagnosis and the cortisone shot). I’ve started doing physical therapy twice a week and feel much better and definitely stronger than I have been, so I’m looking forward to my half marathon in a few weeks to see how my knee responds to that distance after all this work. 

I’ve also signed up and started training for the Trailblaze Challenge which is a one-day, 28.3 mile hike that I’ll be doing in May. Unfortunately, the weather has been hampering our formal training hikes, so I’ve only done two so far, but this week calls for a 10 mile hike and the weather is supposed to be in the 70’s today (jealous?!), so even though we’re expecting some rain tomorrow, it should be nice enough for us to get out on the trails this weekend and start our real training!

I’ve also convinced a few of my friends to join me on a trail relay this summer in Angel Fire, NM so I’m excited to check another state off my list and maybe this time I’ll be able to complete all three of my legs without getting rained out!

Resolution Updates
Walk the dogs for at least 20 minutes, 5 days a week – I’ve been terrible at this resolution this month… part of it can be blamed on the super cold weather we’ve had, but some of it is not managing my time as well as I could have in the evenings.
6 / 28 days totaling 20 miles & 6 hours

Drink more water – I was on a 37 day streak but had a day with only 22 ounces, so my current streak at the end of February was 8 days.
23 / 31 days drinking at least 39 oz. of water, including a current 18-day streak

2,015 miles in 2015 – this goal requires about 5.5 miles per day, and I was a little behind in January which means that I’m a little farther behind in February. My new average per day is up to 5.66 miles per day because I only hit my goal in 11 out of 28 days.
145.6 numbers in February for a total of 285.6 miles so far

How did your February goals go?

January Recap – the waiting is the hardest part

In January, I signed up for the #RagnarTraining 30-day challenge and, again, I found it hard to complete the challenge as intended (I suppose that’s why it’s called a challenge!). Since injuring my knee the week of Thanksgiving, I haven’t played any soccer, so while I’ve been running a couple of times a week, I don’t have a consistent schedule of athletic activities right now. So what that ended up meaning was that I only made it through 23 days of exercise in the month of January, instead of the full 30, but it made me appreciate the difficulty of having to plan something every day, as opposed to my normal plan of just show up when the sports league tells me to! 

As part of the challenge, we were supposed to submit pictures of our activities through Facebook or Instagram and I posted all of my here but I didn’t take one everyday because I was typically going out at the same time and going on the same route every time too, so it was hard to think of a new way to take pictures. I did get one of mine featured on the Ragnar Facebook promo though! The picture in the upper left corner was a beautiful sunset I captured last Monday – one of the few post-work times when I got to see something different. As you can see from the other pictures, everyone had their own activities from cycling, running outside or on a treadmill, working out with friends and dealing with all of the snow the rest of the country has been hit with recently.

I only did one race in January and while I know I was undertrained, I was a little surprised at how long it took me to fully recovery from that race. For two days after the race, my calves were killing me (woo hills!) and my weekly run for the following two weeks were also more painful than usual as my calves tried to bounce back. Since dropping down to the half marathon for DC, I had started contemplating going with Raleigh as my back-up marathon for this spring, but I’ve still been having issues with my knee, so 8.5 weeks after my initial injury, I went to a sports medicine doctor and while she said she’s pretty confident it’s not my ACL (yay!), she’s concerned that it might be a meniscus tear… so last week I got to do my first-ever MRI. It really wasn’t that bad – since it was just my knee, I didn’t have to have my head in the machine and with the earplugs they gave me, the noise kind of made it feel like I was in a washing machine. Honestly, I probably could have fallen asleep with the noise and vibration, but the one thing they told me was “don’t move your knee” so I was afraid if I did start to fall asleep, I would twitch myself awake! I’m still waiting on the results of the MRI, so hopefully by the end of this week I’ll have a better idea of what I’m looking at. But, at this point, I’m just ready to have an answer as to what I’m going to need to do to get back to feeling 100%… I’m a planner and I’ve been struggling to force myself not to sign up for anything else before I get an answer on my knee. 

Resolution Updates
Walk the dogs for at least 20 minutes, 5 days a week – the dogs have loved going for walks after work and certainly look forward to it now. I haven’t quite met this goal yet and ideally I’d like to start walking them before work instead of after, but it was a good start!
16 / 31 days totaling 37 miles & 10.5 hours

Drink more water – my iDrated app suggests 78 oz. a day, but I’m starting with trying to hit at least 50% every day
23 / 31 days drinking at least 39 oz. of water, including a current 18-day streak

I also have an idea in the back of my head that I want to try to hit 2,015 miles this year, counting all of my steps through my Fitbit. My highest total mileage since I’ve started tracking my steps is 1,553 miles in 2013. To reach 2,015 in 2015 that means about 5.5 miles per day. For January, I’ve hit 140 miles, which means I’m a little behind that goal, but over the course of the year, my average daily mileage has only increased to 5.6 miles per day. 

How did your first month of 2015 go?