Shin Splints

I've had shin splints for most of my life. They started way back in volleyball in middle school. I remember complaining to my parents about pain whenever we'd do jumping drills (i.e. bunny hop type things over the court lines on the floor for up to a min). Dad ended up buying me a wrap that I'd wrap around my shin and wear it underneath my knee sock. This would seem to help except for the times where I would wrap it too tight and my foot would start to go numb. I never really did anything to try and get rid of the pain. I may have iced but I don't remember ever being strict about it at the age of 13. And then I didn't make the volleyball team sophomore year of high school and thought my life was over.

But then I ran a local 5k and running became my new obsession. I don't recall when my shin splints started up again in high school. I mostly just remember running through pain and taking ice baths at school in the training room. I would sometimes take it easy in speed workouts, especially sprints. My coach told me to never wear flip flops so I always wore my running shoes at school. I do remember both Mom and Dad trying to motivate me to be rehabbing and to do calf raises on the stairs to strengthen them. I'd always fight them because of how painful it was. I remember not really liking my spikes because running in them hurt my shins. I remember bringing icy hot to every meet and being that girl (every time I smell it now it brings me back). Having this chronic pain was a reason why I had no desire to run collegiately. I was tired of the pain and didn't run much after high school. I got back into running for a short time entering some races, but never doing anything over a 5k.

I didn't really get back into the sport until I became obsessed with triathlon. I'd foam roll and ice but I was never super disciplined about it and I think training in three sports instead of one really helped. I'd feel some pain here and there but it was never horrible. Then cut to marathon training. It was about 4 weeks into our plan and I could feel the pain in my left shin coming back. I was able to think about it differently being in massage school and knowing the anatomy of the area. I took a week off and should have cross trained but didn't. The pain went away and this was thanks to getting structural massages on my calves almost twice a week at school.

Then this weekend, Tyler and I had our "short" long run of 12 miles. I was all ready to go and was limping to the kitchen. While my oatmeal cooked in the microwave, I stood their contemplating whether or not I should run. I wanted to, but my gut was telling me I shouldn't. I texted Tyler and told her I'd cross train instead. She was supportive and smashed the run herself!!

And now I'm here with my left calf elevated on the couch because I've found that R.I.C.Eing and those darn calf raises has really helped alleviate some pain. And while writing this it's making me think how having the strength to take a rest day is just as hard as having the strength to finish a race. It's hard as a runner to take a day off, but I've come to listen to my body more than I ever had in high school.

Take Three

Yup, I'm back. Over a year and almost a half since my last post. I'm newly 24. My little tiny kitten is now a year and a half, but still acts like a little baby. I am no longer serving but went back to school- for Massage Therapy (this experience will be saved for a later post). I moved back home to save money while at school and am currently awaiting for my license to become active so I can begin working full time. In the last 4 weeks, I've been rewatching Friends, training at my new job, helping my mom out with her blog, 365 Days of Baking and More, and probably most importantly marathon training.

Tyler texted me over Christmas and said she was moving back in with her parents and was planning on training for a marathon. Coincidentally, my parents moved to a house a street away from hers. It was perfect timing because I'd be able to start training while still in school and then have 8 weeks after I graduated to continue training. Right now, tomorrow marks a month out from that first 26.2 for the both of us. I'd say training has gone pretty well for us considering we both started with little training base and had never run over 13 miles before. Our farthest is 18 after the planned 19 this past weekend didn't happen because we got lost on a trail but the views were great.

From now until the marathon I'll write some updates but being an amateur marathoner, I won't be offering any advice. I've also committed to the Tone It Up Bikini Series. This will be the third time I've attempted it and the first time I plan on completing it. I've even made an Instagram account for this new endeavor (runfitlex) to which I've also decided to rename this blog to. I loved the ring that "For the Love of Running" had, but had found out the name had already been taken. I always come back to running and love following the journey of other women in the sport. I'm excited to be back to spending my free time with this new hobby. I must have really liked it before if I came back to it. So here we go, for a third time! 

Cat Mom

As some of you know, I recently became a cat mom to this sweet little face. I had started watching cat videos on YouTube and have always thought they were cute. My family has had more cats growing up than we've had dogs. This is still weird to me considering we all consider ourselves more of dog people than anything. We love our two Golden Retrievers. They are some of the most gentle, goofy, and loving creatures I've ever known. I missed that affection from a pet but knew that at this point in my life, I'm not ready for a dog. I don't have the time to take them for walks and living in an apartment, I can't let them run around in a backyard. So a cat it was. I had thought about the idea of getting one for at least a month before I jumped on it. Well I didn't really jump on it per say.

My roommate and I went to breakfast one morning and on the way I had seen a sign for the Humane Society. I told the roomie that I didn't know that's where it was and she said "yeah, we can go there after breakfast and look at kittens if you want." I agreed but told her not to let me leave with a kitten. I didn't exactly leave with one. I saw her in the cage and fell in love. She was playing with her sisters and wasn't afraid of me handling her. I could tell she had quite the personality. We stood in the cat room for probably 20 minutes before my roommate said "you want her, don't you." I said yes in kind of a guilty voice. She suggested we just go to the receptionist and ask about adoption fees. We did and I didn't have enough cash on me but they said they'd hold her for on hour while I made my decision. We drove home and I thought about her the whole time. So I went back to the Humane Society and paid the adoption fees and I was now the mom to a sweet, little gray and white polydactyl kitten.

It took me a few days to name her. I was thinking Ellie initially but knew it didn't fit her. I was on Skype with Mom and Dad and told them I needed some name suggestions. Mom knew I had been a big Disney fan growing up so she started throwing out names of princesses but none of them worked. She mentioned Nala and I liked that one too but nope. So Dad threw out Winnie and I thought about it for a couple seconds and knew that's what her name was. I looked up the meaning of the name on Wikipedia and found "fair one; white and smooth; soft; happiness; fair and pure". All of these words fit her to a T. I mean, granted she's not always fair and pure because she's a kitten. She likes to bite me but I'll take it. Winnie makes up for it in her sweet face and her snuggles. Like right now she's curled up with her head on my feet.

Expect to see a whole lot more pictures of this girl because I'm obsessed with her. My friends now joke that I'm a cat lady and they're right, but it's fine because if they had her they would be too. 

Take Two

Sometimes I get really frustrated because I'm passionate about a lot of things. If someone was to tell me this I'd think "how can someone have too many passions?" I mean, this makes sense if they all tie into each other somehow. Like, if someone was passionate about swimming and running they could get into triathlon and just pick up the cycling. Or if someone was interested in both health and cooking they could become a nutritionist. Creating a career from a passion is something I dream of, however I keep changing my mind.

In high school it was running and photography. I used to have dreams of becoming fashion or lifestyle photographer so when I started college, I declared photography as a major. I then got a gig taking pictures for the school's newspaper, but I was never  published. I wasn't too into this whole idea so one day I thought about how I'd love to become a teacher. So I changed my major to Special Education. The classes were great, my instructors were inspiring, and at age 19, this is what I was going to do with my life. I was going to have a classroom and I was going to be one who lived up to the quote of "those who can, teach". After two semesters life happened and I ended up back at home with my parents and worked as a daycare teacher for two year olds. It was here that I was talking to a coworker about how I felt that being a teacher wasn't really something I was passionate about anymore and she was telling me about how her daughter was at school in a Speech Pathology program. My coworker was sharing how the income for people in this field is high and that people are needed to fill these jobs. I went home and researched the field and thought I'd go back to school and declare this as my major for the final time. I was in the program for a semester before my family moved to New Hampshire. I took some classes online but work got too crazy so I dropped them. It's been a year since I've been in school and as of right now, I'm not looking into going back to learning Speech Pathology.

Also within the last two years, I've gone back and forth between both running and triathlon. This isn't as big a dilemma as figuring out a career, but it is frustrating none the less. Triathlon's expensive and you can't do it without a bike, a pool to swim in, or races to enter. Running is much cheaper in this regard. All you really need are running shoes, shorts, and race fees are sometimes about a third of a triathlon. I can always do one or the other whenever I want. But as I've written before, I've been leaning more toward focusing on running. This was great until I got sick and stayed six for 3 weeks and when work got stressful. I plan to pick running back up again soon, slowly. I am also planning on getting this blog going again too. I'm thinking that maybe I can channel all those crazy passions I have into one thing. So, here's take two and hopefully no take three.

'A' is for Athlete

Having a "type a" personality is usually defined as someone being regimented or particular about how things go because they like being in control at all times. They don't like seeing an outcome that they weren't able to be in charge of. They're often anxious and impatient and live off the deadlines they set for themselves. If you want a more clear picture of this kind of person, watch some Gossip Girl and observe Blair Waldorf, you'll learn quickly. 

I never saw myself as one of these types of people except for maybe within the last couple of years. I'm known for being really laid back, indecisive, and quite. I would never, ever, consider myself to have a "type a" personality. However, when it comes to being an athlete, I obviously have some type a in me. I'm a competitive, ambitious, and pretty impatient person by nature which doesn't really fit the "type b" personality traits. These traits have more to do with my athletic self more than anything else. For example, the other day it was in my schedule to run 3 easy miles because the day before I had done 5 miles at tempo pace. I felt great for the tempo workout, the best I had felt running like that in awhile. I wasn't feeling the same the next day. 3 super easy miles at 8:30 pace was more than fine by me, but Dad didn't think so. We were easily pushing 8:15 pace. When we hit the trail on the run he had just kinda took off while I tried to get back to 8:30/ mile but slower because we were trail running. I could have been super competitive and kicked it in with him but staying back had a lot to do with the fact that my training plan said to do 3 easy miles. If a person with a "type a" personality had gone over or under the 3 miles at a pace that was way too fast they would have probably had anxiety. I'm don't go this far with it but something inside of me always feels wrong. And then tonight at the local track practice I felt the same way. Where I live, there are controlled burns for the forest. I don't know if today's smoke was from a controlled burn or not but the air (it was also really cold) was really thick and I was having a lot of trouble breathing. And it wasn't the trouble breathing I was familiar with. No, this was a "I'm sucking in air but nothing's going in my lungs. Oh now comes a mini panic attack because I can't breathe." type of thing. The workout involved some interval pacing and I was feeling so awesome and fast but when you're feeling awesome and fast your body also needs that oxygen and I was not getting enough. I grew frustrated but let it go because workouts aren't always perfect and this is how you learn because adversity (aka breathing issues) makes you stronger. So I shook it off like Taylor told me to and finished out the workout best I could. 

There were a lot of things I could continue to say about this subject, I think. But it's 11 at night and my body is telling me to go to sleep and that the last few hours of Christmas music was enough for tonight. 

Oh, and I found this quote tonight- "Stay close to what keeps you feeling alive." Mmmm yeah I think being an athlete (more specifically running) is what I need to stay close to. 

For the Love of Running

I recently changed the name of this blog to something more permanent. It's called "For the Love of Running" for various reasons. However, running is way more than just running to me. It's my lifestyle and I love it. It's opened a lot of doors and has made me into who I am today and will bring me to where I want to go in the future. So here's a little story of why I named this blog what I did. 

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I've been running for a long time. It kinda started with my dad. He ran marathons here and there when I was a kid and I'd go on an occasional run with him around the neighborhood. I also had a babysitter who ran for the local high school. Since every 8 year old wants to do what there babysitter did, I took up a local recreational track program. I don't remember a whole lot about participating besides running across the field at a track practice one night and then finding a fly in my mouth and was totally grossed out. I had a ribbon for a 300m I ran once. There wasn't a time listed on the ribbon but I know it wasn't anything impressive. 

I didn't keep up with the rec program for very long. My family moved out to Arizona when I was ten and I hadn't really participated in anything up until I joined a coed soccer team with some friends. This didn't last long either since my team never won a game, but I had always enjoyed running around the field. I quit soccer on my 11th birthday. After soccer it was volleyball. A lot of volleyball. I loved volleyball. Again, I started this because my friends were playing and I had an interest in it. I didn't make the middle school teams but I played for a few local clubs. I wasn't always the most coordinated, but seemed to beat all my teammates when we'd have to do suicides (running the length of the court for a certain amount of time, usually as discipline or conditioning). I just thought I was more in shape than the other girls, for some odd reason. Then my world came crashing down when I didn't make the high school junior varsity team my sophomore year. It was a dream of mine to play at the college level. When I look at it now, this dream was kinda far fetched. I loved volleyball but I wasn't consumed by it. 

So with volleyball very much over, I needed to take up something else. My dad suggested I run the local Turkey Trot 5k with him since running had been something I was interested in before taking up volleyball or soccer. Run that 5k with him I did. I ran something like 24 minutes and won my age group with little to no training. I didn't think much of it besides the fact that it was fun. This time, however, caught the eye of the local high school cross country coach. A few hours after the race, on Thanksgiving mind you, my mom received an email. It was my sister's club volleyball coach (also the high school xc coach). It said something like "24 minutes for a 5k is good for a 15 year old who doesn't have much training and I think she should come out for the track team once we start training in January."  I was pretty excited seeing as how I hadn't ever been recognized for my athletic abilities. Sure my volleyball coaches always said I had potential, but I never really honed in on that. This email was the beginning of the rest of my life, quite literally. 

I started with the track team and fell in love with running right away. I was quite that first season and wasn't really fast either. I didn't make it to state and ran a slow time at regionals but wanted to be on varsity as a sophomore and that was what I had accomplished so I was happy. I then ran cross country junior year and wasn't all that fast at 5ks either. I had finally found my niche that track season. Coach had me racing mostly 1600s but my 800 times were kinda impressive. I had run the 4x800 a few times and was one of the faster 4. I then started racing the open 8. I placed second in the region that year and tenth at state. (My 4x800 team were the first girls to win points state meet as we had placed 7th). I was running 2:30s consistently. At the time (girls are getting faster year after year), if you could run a sub 2:30 800 you were good because there weren't many girls that could do that. I ran cross country again my senior year but again, 5ks weren't my distance. It was the 800. I was successful at the distance again my senior year when I had learned how to actually run. My goal had been to go around 2:27 to try and keep the school record a little longer, but my legs weren't able to get me there. I placed 3rd in the region that year and 11th at state. I loved that distance and really miss racing it. It is one of the hardest races in track and field but it was a blast. 

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Since picking up triathlon and learning that the 20s can be some of the fastest years for female runners, I've begun to think that I'm faster than I ever was in high school. I ran a 47 minute 10k in my first olympic distance triathlon after being burnt out and not having trained a whole lot the weeks prior. The half marathon a few weeks ago was a blast but I feel like I could get my 10k down even more. I feel like I have some speed hidden inside of me somewhere. It needs to be nourished and encouraged. With these thoughts in my head I took action. I joined the local running team. It's a collective mix of middle aged parents, college kids, and singeltons in the adult program. There's also a kids team and a pro team within the whole as well. Tonight I went to my first track practice with the team at the University's track. It was a blast. We did some interval work and I was nervous about it since I haven't been very diligent about training. I kept up with some of the faster women and felt terrific. Some of the pro athletes was there to give splits and encourage every single runner no matter how fast or slow they were going. It was amazing to see the community and camaraderie taking place. I'm so glad I am now apart of two amazing teams who encourage runners no matter there speed or experience. This is one of my most favorite things about the sport and it's taught me so much.

So here it is, an actual blog with an actual name. Running is my first love and always will be. It got me into my newer love, triathlon. It's developed some of my dearest and closest friendships. Because of it, I've had the opportunities to coach and see the sport from that side and I couldn't be more grateful for having these legs of mine that allow me to do this. 

Here's to doing something you love and not having it any other way. Here's to running because you love it. 

Dabbling in 13.1

Lake Powell Half Finish

It's been over 12 hours since I finished the race and all I keep thinking is "I can't believe I ran a half marathon this morning." This half was the most miles I had run continuously ever, with my second longest being 10 miles. The rooms and I had decided we would kinda just do this race because it was Lake Powell and it'd be a fun, kinda easy race. So that's what we did. She's run 6 halfs up to this while I had never done anything over an open 5k. Its safe to say I was a bit nervous this morning.

Leading up to today I had trained very minimally, and I'm not understating this. Last weekend we ran 8.5 miles and bonked hard around mile 6. This was the farthest I had run in at least a year and a half. Prior to picking up triathlon,  I had no reason to run over 10 miles at one time and when I'm not training for a specific distance I find it hard for myself to get out there and knock out more than 3 miles at a time. And the 800m runner I had been in high school didn't ever have super long runs unless it had been for xc but even then, I never raced over a 5k. Being a server, I find it hard to find the motivation to get out and run every day, so I hadn't run more than 3 days in the past two weeks. The girl inside me that's been running for 6 years was kicking herself because she knows that this is how you can get injured but, I did it anyway.

Reppin' the Oiselle Flockies!!!

The course was gorgeous so I'll just start off with that. We started off with the 1:45 pacer. My goal for the day was to just go under 2:00 but, if I could stay around 1:45 I'd be happy. My first few miles were like 8:30 pace and I was too comfortable and I wanted to go faster but I knew I had to hold back. It also had to do that we were down in elevation about 3,000 so yay oxygen! About 6 miles in, the rooms and I were talking about how we weren't really pushing a pace. We had fallen off the pacer as I had issues with the hydration system because I was just used to grabbing cups and going (Vacation Races does this awesome thing where cups aren't allowed as to reduce litter in the park. They use hydration pouches). Then at about mile 8, I asked her if she had wanted to go for it and catch the guy trotting along with the 1:45 sign. She replied with saying he was kinda far but I was ambitious and eager and feeling awfully competitive. I picked up the pace a little getting under 8 mins to try and catch him. But then the 1:50 pacer caught me. He was saying how he was a little faster than goal time so I held on with him until about a mile left where I kicked it in a little too early to try and catch a girl with American Flag shorts who I had assumed had been in our age group. Side note: I have this thing where I don't like to go home with just a finishers medal. I like to podium in my age group. I also have a superstition where I wear my green Nike sports bra and either podium or pr while wearing it. But anyways...I tried to catch the American Flag girl but wasn't able to. I panted till I got to the finish and probably ended up with a not so cute finish photo but who cares because it was a blast. I finished 4th in my age group with 1:46 while the rooms was 3 seconds behind me and placed 5th. We still got age group medals because Vacation Races takes it 5 deep! Woo!

With all this being said and it being a more running-specific post I feel like for some reason, I should announce that I'll be focusing more on solely running for the next few months. The cost to get back into really training for triathlon was really off putting when I moved and calculated how much it would cost for me to join the University's pool and gym so I could use the track. I found this to not be totally financially responsible for me at this time so it's back to my first love and I'm really excited. I even bought myself a Garmin 220 as an incentive and I love it. 

I only ran 2 mins off my 10k pr today and 2 of the 6 miles were on hilly, sandy trails. So who knows what I could do. I think I'll make it a goal of mine to beat my high school 5k pr of 20:58. I feel like that's cake for me now. And there's already been talk of another half and then the full 26.2 within the next couple of months too ;)