dang...!

Good golly its been a while since my last post! It's been a crazy couple of weeks. So much has happened in my life, yet so little has happened in terms of training. And that makes me nervous, Maui Half Marathon is only 25 days away. And only three long runs left. Gulp.

Since paragraphs are overrated anyway, here's what's been going down:

Knee:

Took 8 (!!!!!) whole days off of running. Longest non-running streak since like.... January?? But thankfully, all of the sharp pain seems to be gone, just a little bit of tenderness remains, esp during deep knee bends

Energy:

F*c&i$g Sh!t I haven't been feeling well. I feel like someone shoved a straw into my body and sucked up every last ounce of energy and life force out from my body. I actually had to take the morning off of work yesterday. I don't know why I feel SOOOOO tired even while my training is the least intense. I blame it on stressful work, and the fact that for the last 1.5 weeks, it's barely gotten warmer than 60 degrees, and now all of a sudden it is 80+ degrees. No bueno

Training:

With my knee injury and lack of energy, training was sh!tty. I went to the gym a couple of times and swam a couple of times, and went for a walk. That's about it. Dang.

Running:

I FINALLY went on a run yesterday. I was Extremely nervous/anxious/stressed about this run. Would my knee give out? Would my lungs remember how to suck air? Would my feet remember to keep moving forward? Would I be able to run over a mile?

I'm happy to report I ran a GLORIOUS 5 miles. I felt like I could go on longer, but duh, Julia, that's how you got injured in the first place! Pushing myself at this point is NOT wise. 5 miles felt PERFECT. I'm so glad I did it.

I left for the run telling myself I could quit at any point, or do the Galloway method if my lungs couldn't take it. But once I was running along the beach, all my worries melted away, and I was able to get lost in the rhythm again. When I looked at my Garmin back at home, I realized I had one of my fastest 5 mile splits EVER. WTF? I thought I was going so slow!? But I was glad to know that my 8 day hiatus has not wreaked havoc on my fitness.

Future Plans:

Taking it SLOW and GRADUAL. I absolutely DO NOT want to get re-injured before Maui. I am not going to try to "make up" for the miles I couldn't run in the last 8 days. I have 25+ miles to catch up on, but I am going to let those go, and just pick up where I left off. Pushing myself right now is not the best idea. This means:

• No fast repeats. I might do one session of 800's, but not at my usual speed.
  
• Use Galloway if needed
• Refrain from running if knee starts feeling painful
• IBUPROFEN!!!
• Lots of icing and stretching of quad muscles
• No sprinting (speed really hurts my knees)
• NO CHEAP FLIP FLOPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Santa Barbara Triathlon:

On Sat, James and I were water aid station volunteers for the long course triathlon, which was a mile swim, 30 mile bike ride, and a 10 mile out and back run.

We were handing out waters for 4+ hours! It honestly did not feel that long, esp when huge groups of thirsty runners would fly by. And who knew handing out waters required mad skills? It really is not as easy as it sounds; to hand out little cups without spilling all the contents to people running 6 miles an hour who don't slow down! We kept jokingly announcing that we were handing out tequila and Grey Goose, and the runners seemed to like that. James told one guy he was handing out beer, and you should have seen the look of disappointment on his face when he realized it was indeed, just plain old H20!

Unfortunately, I didn't really have the chance to talk to any participants, since by the time we were done with our water station shift, it had started to pour, and 90% of the racers were done and had gone home. Still, I had a lot of fun, and it lit a fire under my a$$ to start training for one. James too. Now if we both just had bikes, we could start racing today!

Here are some pics:

5 minutes later, the sky started pi$$ing rain. Very unusual weather in SB.The water station. The fast runners are running back towards the start/finish line on the right hand side.

We went through Gallons upon Gallons of H2O

James: master water giver outer

It was fun, and I definitely would want to volunteer at more events. It was so inspiring to see people working so hard, and so motivating to see the super fast runners. I hope to fly like them one day too :)

Ok. I think I got mostly caught up. I'm still busy as heck for the next few days and I really cannot wait to catch up on everyone's blogs and training. I hope everyone is experiencing success! Only 2.5 more days till the weekend. I think I might be heading out of town, so I must find a way to fit in a long run sometime. I will make it happen! Wish me luck ;)
Thanks for still reading!

Oh and totally random, but Victoria's Secret is having 40% off on already super cheap bathing suits until today I think. I definitely need to get one before Hawai'i time!