Update on my leg/knee

I am slacking again! I am picking back up though as things have been going crazy.  I am preparing for a trip to Hawaii next week and all the logistics going into that are making me a crazy lady!  Anyway, I just realized I never did an update as to what was going on with my knee!

Last I posted, I saw the Sports Med doctor and he told me it was IT band but it, in itself, was not tight.  It would get tight in situations where my weak hips would tire, shift, and cause it to tighten due to lengthening.  He set me up to meet with a physical therapist and have a couple sessions for at home instruction and a biomedical assessment to check it was the only issue.  I found out a LOT during that biomedical assessment.

I went in and he twisted me in all sorts of directions, had me walk up and down a hall regularly, toes out, toes in, windmill and drop back step type exercises, etc.  A whole gamut of strange things and he told me a lot about why my leg is hurting.

I had a suspicion that it was NOT my IT band because the spot it was hurting was about 2 inches below my knee and not on the side of or above my knee.  It was hurting in a spot that your IT band doesn't even touch.

 

 

 

(Source)

I was hurting more in the area of where the 8 is on that diagram.  Since it has been awhile, I will post the things I can remember him telling me are affecting my running.

1) My peroneus muscle along the outside of my left leg is incredibly tight.  To the point that it will randomly ache and feels ropey when it was manipulated.  Problem is, this is not really a muscle that can be stretched.

2) I tend to walk toed out a bit and am slightly bowlegged.  This causes me to land strange and alignment to be off when I am running.

3) My hips are indeed weak

4) my left hamstring and calf muscle are tighter than he would like them to be

5) I do not use my big toe like I should.  I tend to land on the ball of my foot up and hold my toes up like I have a hammer toe though I do not.  This causes my outside toes to go numb as well as  messing with the all important alignment while running.

6) My femur and tibia-fibular head do not rotate the way that they should.  The t-F head is where my pain was coming from.

I ended up going to PT twice a week for 4 weeks to deal with these issues.  He gave me shoe inserts to work on supporting my low arches as well as helping me to use my toes more efficiently.  I have not had the courage to run in these yet... I wear them during the day but the fact that my arch is not used to being held up yet causes some discomfort there sometimes.

I have a HUGE (or what seems huge) list of exercises that I am to do daily until I hit 10ish miles again and then I can split the list and do them 2-3 days a week after to keep things going.

He did a lot of massage and manipulation on that peroneus muscle to attempt to loosen it.  He told me that is likely going to be an issue for me forever and suggested a percussion massager to use after runs.

I am supposed to direct ice my T-F head after each and every run to the point of numbness to fight swelling and irritation in that area.

I do have to say that I am doing these exercises (not every day- BAD, Cassie) and I am now running pain free again! Last time I ran I went for 6 miles and had some pain, 7 miles and was almost unable to finish, and 8 miles that turned into 3 when I could NOT push through the pain.  I am back up to 5 miles pain free and though I am nervous it will come back this weekend, I have a 6 miler scheduled.  Hoping all goes well!

So, there it is! My stupid leg hates my running but it has to get with the program =)

Happy Running!

Just when I thought things were calming down... (non-running related)

it came time to gear up for school!  While we homeschool, and my kids are still very young, we have a very flexible school schedule but the kiddos are showing serious signs of needing some structure in their lives so I have been prepping.  It is reminding me a lot of when I was in a classroom. 

We were ALMOST ready to start.  Rex is 5.5 and going into 1st grade this year and Curly just turned 4 and is starting kindergarten this year so I had ordered everything for them and this week I pulled everything out to get it set up.  I got the first few lessons of our reading program ready, got math pages put into binders, and got all of our phonogram cards torn apart and put into the card box. 

Then, The Husband looks at me during a discussion when I was telling him I would like to get a table for the school area rather than the desks that we have now, and tells me that it would be great to be able to move school into the playroom.  Well, my brain took that and ran with it and for the last 2 days I have been in hyper-drive.  So far I have: organized Curly's closet, deep cleaned her room, picked up a cabinet and bed for her room, turned said cabinet into a dress up closet, had The Husband move her room around and take a shelf down, then move it back and put the shelf back up (sorry TH), and moved all of her stuff from the playroom into her room.

Still left to do is deep cleaning Rex's room and moving his toys into his room from the toy room then taking all of the school stuff down off the wall and moving it into the new school room. I am excited to have more wall space to work with! Non-school related, we are picking up Rex's bed and painting it. He wants the headboard to be camouflaged and The Husband is going to Home Depot soon and getting materials to build shelves for their rooms so we can have storage for the toys moving in there. And, don't tell the Husband but I have visions of paining their rooms very, very soon. I have quite a bit of stuff on craigslist that I am hoping sell soon because I am running out of room to store things in the meantime.

Hopefully I can have some before and after pictures soon of our new school room area and of the kids' room makeovers.  Also, hopefully we can get started on school sometime before December! =) 

Since I haven't mentioned running yet, I should also say that I am trying to decide on a traiining program.  The Husband mentioned maybe I should run a half program a couple times from now until time to start the marathon program and then start at a normal marathon training point? I haven't decided yet and need to look at the calendar to decide.  I need to give myself as much weight loss time before I reintroduce higher carbs as possible and since the last couple days I have been off the wagon, it may take FOREVER to make it to goal!

Happy Running!

Getting Back in the Groove...

I still haven't gotten together a post about vacation but I am itching to write so here I am.  =) We are supposed to get a huge storm tonight similar to the one we got in late June last year.  It has the possibility of turning into a Derecho (Long lasting, straight, damaging winds) also like last year.  It's pretty frustrating and I am kicking myself that we didn't buy a generator earlier this year when we were considering it.  Last year we were without electric a total of 5 days and some others in my county were without for 14-15 days.  It was pretty crazy.  People were rushing to anywhere that said they had ice because places were running out really quickly when they got it in and they had bag limits on what you could buy.  The husband is supposed to stop today and pick a bunch up for our deep freezer.  Luckily last year my mom, who lives an hour away, wasn't affected and she and my step dad brought me their generator to use and we could run a couple fans and the fridge... Here's hoping it's not as bad.  Anyway, that is why I am wanting to get a post out there in case my electric goes out for a few days! On to the actual topic of this post!!

I am having SUCH a hard time running regularly without having a schedule to follow and something specific to train for! When I was training for The Flying Pig I was really focused.  If I missed a run, I was sure to make it up because I knew it was a bad idea to miss training runs when I was going to be running 13 miles in the near future.  Now I have this 10k coming up on June 29th that I am excited about but for some reason my motivation is waning.  I think mostly because I know that I can run the race without super scheduled training and I am not expecting to get the time that I want because I apparently suck at running in the heat.  My next half is in November so in August I will start a training program again to get ready for that but until then I have been doing terribly.

While we were on vacation we had a total of 6 days.  2 of those were partial days because of travel with 4 whole days at the beach.  Of those 4 days- I ran 3 of them.  There is something wonderful for motivation about just being able to ride down the elevator and take off running with no worries of being run over by crazy drivers since there is a nice sidewalk/exercise trail as well as a bike lane when that runs out.  Here at home, if I want to run somewhere that I don't have to worry about those things I have to drive somewhere.  I wish I wasn't so worried about how people drive because there are actually some decent back roads but people drive these curvy, hilly, can't-hardly-see-anything roads wayyyyy too fast and there are no berms...

 

The road in the background there is a pretty good representation except it doesn't show the huge hill to the right and the blind curve you hit when you continue down the road to the left of me.  Last year when we were running that road the husband and I both almost got hit by some j*rk who refused to get over even a little bit even though nothing was coming the opposite direction.  On top of that we live in fairly small towns so basically 5 miles is all you can eek out and after that you have to loop or run up and down streets.  It's annoying....

Anyway, I haven't been too successful at getting up super early like I have wanted since I have such a hard time getting to sleep at night.  Generally I have been getting to town at around 8am and because of stretching and getting situated to leave it is probably 15 after before I even get started.  I really, really need to attempt to get out the door by 7 or so. 

Ok, so this is apparently turning into a whining post because I have yet another reason my motivation is suffering. My 3 mile, 5 mile, and 6 mile paths are all fairly desolate on bike paths surrounded by woods. The drug/crime problem is escalating fairly badly in this area which is one of the reasons we are trying to get a fast pass out of here.  I have a CCW license and in the winter I run with protection but I have noticed it is harder to carry with summer clothing.  

If you have made it this far through my whining you get a gold star!  I am not usually one to whine without trying to do something to fix it, so here is my plan:

1) I am going to break out my half marathon program and jump back to week 6 or so and start working forward again.  I figure this will keep me on track fairly well and that way when I start in August for my fall half I can focus on improving my speed because my endurance should be there.

2) I am going to hit mapmyrun.com and attempt to map a few more routes to follow through town.  Don't know how successful this will be but I am going to give it a go!

3) I am going to try to get to bed by around 10pm to make it easier to get up in the morning instead of my normal 12-1am.  I figure after a couple days of getting up early it won't be that difficult to get myself in bed by 10pm =)

In all, I hope that I can get into a good groove again because I don't want to lose what I have gained over the last few months running!

Happy Running!!

Notes on Weightloss and a Spartan Race Entry Winner!

This post is one that has been rolling around in my head for awhile.  This is something that I have struggled with for probably most of my life.  Right around the summer between my 8th grade year and high school I started gaining weight.  My mom had major knee surgery and I spent a lot of time on the couch with her that summer.  It was not good for my weight AT ALL.  I spent most of my high school years being overweight.  I was pretty miserable.  Then, at the beginning summer my junior year I found out that I was got into college a year early and I would be attending a local university in the fall rather than my high school.  I took that as my chance.  Mom and I both took the summer to work hard and lose the weight we had gained and we both did it!  I started college as a new person and felt so much better about myself.

Me in the back. Christmas 1998. Right before the summer where I started gaining.

Unfortunately, that was not the last I would see about that weight.  See, I was always losing my weight on crash diets that would help me lose fast but I would gain back just as fast with usually some more tacked on. I have been on a path of gaining and losing over and over since that summer before my senior year 11 years ago.  Just last year at this time I was closing in on my goal weight once again, The Husband left to work out of town, and in the 11 months he was gone I gained everything back I had lost plus 10lbs.

Junior Prom May 2002- about where I was all of high school weight-wise.  Also right before I started losing.

I am DETERMINED that this is the last time I am going to see this weight.  I have finally spoken with the right people and I am doing this the right way.  No more crash diets for me, I am now eating my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) and doing well.  I was very skeptical of eating the amount of calories my BMR suggested.  Back in the end of February/beginning of March of this year I was eating anywhere between 900-1100 calories and I was well into my half marathon training program.  My weight loss had stalled and I was feeling frustrated.  I spoke with some people who told me about BMR.  In case you don't know, it is the amount of calories your body burns on a daily basis just doing things it HAS to do like digestion and breathing.  Basically, it's what you would burn if you just laid in bed all day and existed.  These wonderful women figured my BMR for me and set me on the way of eating almost 1600 calories a day.  I was so worried I would gain eating that much.  I mean who eats more to lose weight?! I gave it 2 weeks.

October 2005- Healthy weight I had maintained since 2002

August 2009- About a week after my 2nd baby in 16 months was born

That was almost 3 months ago and I am still continually and consistently losing with this program in addition to exercise. I have had some setbacks and fluctuations here and there but when I am watchful I am getting a steady loss. I am glad that I am finally focusing on healthy eating and lifestyle changes rather than quick weight loss that comes right back. I am now less than a pound away from hitting the 20lb weight loss mark this time around.  20lbs I hope to never ever see again!  Only about 30 more to go.

 

May 2011- 15lbs from goal weight

November 2012-beginning of this round of weight loss

May 2013- Most current picture.

Sorry for all the pictures! I am trying to document this for myself as well and remind myself where I never want to be again!

And now for the WINNER of the Spartan Race Entry!! Congratulations...Teresa Daujotis Millstone! Go conquer the Spartan race! Please check your email!

Has anyone else struggled with weight loss?
What's the craziest fad diet you have heard of? 

Reebok Spartan Race! (It's a GIVEAWAY!)

So, The Husband and I are venturing into the world of mud running for the first time this weekend.  We are really excited to get muddy and try out some obstacles.  However, it's not the Spartan Race, and this thing looks AWESOME! What a better way to test your limits than the race that was rated the #1 obstacle race by Outdoor magazine??


This series looks TOUGH.  They have 4 different levels: The Spartan Sprint, Spartan Super, Spartan Beast, and the Spartan Death Race (Sounds intimidating, huh?).  It should, this is their description from their FAQ page.

"What's the difference between Spartan Sprint, Super, Beast, and Death Races?

There are some staples in our repertoire. There are also some venue specific and terrain inspired obstacles.
We will not, however, spell it out for you. As well, you will get no course map to inspect. There is fire, mud, water, barbed wire, and occasionally Hell on Earth.
There WILL be obstacles to catch you off guard. Curve balls, so to speak.
Get over it.
We’re here to rip you from your comfort zone. If you need a road map for each step of the way, then maybe this race isn’t for you." 

 Basically it boils down to:

What is a Spartan Sprint? 3+ MILES / 15+ OBSTACLES
What is a Super Spartan? 8+ MILES / 20+ OBSTACLES
What is The Spartan Beast? 12+ MILES / 25+ OBSTACLES
What the #$%! is The Death Race?

source
 

 Their mission is also one that I am on board with!

"Spartan Race is on a mission to get you active, healthy, excited about change, and return to our ancient roots where running through woods, getting dirty, and facing adversity was part of everyday life. Our events are all about challenging today’s perception of normal."

Think that you have what it takes to push your boundaries and be a Spartan? I think you do! And what better way to celebrate that super strength than with a free entry to a Spartan race near you! Enter below in the rafflecopter to win a free entry to a race that has not sold out near you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


**Disclaimer: I was contacted by Spartan Race to do this giveaway.  I was not compensated in any way. 

Why I Run

I have been thinking a lot about why I decided to run recently.  Who in their right mind, that has never been a runner in their life, decides to pick up running? And not just running but half marathons and hopefully soon to be marathons as well?

When I think about it I have actually always wanted to be a runner but I always lacked motivation for the follow through.  Looking back on my student teaching I remember mentioning to a fellow teacher that I would like to run a half marathon someday.  Even further back, in college, I remember going to the gym and just being happy I survived a mile.  Over these years I have been in different stages of weight/shape and somehow running never "clicked."

Then, last year, I decided I HAD to do something about my weight.  I had gained a lot with my first child and at that point I was already on a mission to lose weight.  6 months following my son being born I was pregnant with my daughter.  It took me probably a 9 months or so to really get on board to losing weight after she was born and I was FINALLY within about 15lbs of my first (and possibly final) goal depending on how I felt at that weight. I had started running for the first time, was up to about 3 miles, and was feeling good. Then my husband left town for work and I started gaining all of what I had lost back.  It was completely my fault because I had fallen into bad eating and exercise habits again and it took awhile to pull myself out of that hole.

Then December came and I had decided to watch my intake and then The Husband got my treadmill for me for Christmas and I was able to start running again. I have steadily upped my mileage since and ran 2-5ks and ran my first half marathon 10 days ago.  I do have to say that losing weight was one of the primary reason for me wanting to run.

However, in reality that is not my main reason for wanting to run and thus lose weight.  These guys are!

I want to be healthy and active for them.  I want to teach them a healthy lifestyle and how to have a healthy relationship with food.  I am finally on my way back down in my weight and I am glad to have running to help with that.  At this point, I don't just run to lose weight but I truly enjoy it! I love the feeling I get after a run and the feeling of my feet hitting the pavement during.  It really is a "runner's high" and I am glad that I finally actualized my dreams of becoming a runner.

These kiddos see The Husband and I eating healthy, working out, and teaching them the importance of those things.  I am glad that is something I am able to pass on to them so they, hopefully, don't struggle as I have getting to this point. They need and deserve a healthy Mama (and Daddy) and we are doing everything we can to make sure that is exactly what they get!

Seriously?! An Injury?!

Why wouldn't I start having pain in my foot during my last week of training before the half marathon??

During the beginning of my 11 miler this past Sunday, I noticed a twinge in my foot.  I went ahead and ran through it and by the time I got back to the car I could barely walk because of the pain.  I also had some pain in my knee.  I had already noticed some runner's knee from last spring when I was running and I wear the jumper's knee braces when I run and don't have any pain.  Well, now I have ordered an IT band compression wrap because I am thinking the pain I had on Sunday was due to my IT band.  As far as the foot, I believe that it may be Plantar Fasciitis.  It is right in the arch of my foot and that is the most common problem I am seeing come from that area.

Monday I iced my knee and haven't had any trouble with it since but because of my foot I have not had an opportunity to run to test it.  My foot has been iced, rested, and elevated as much as possible since Monday as well and I have been wearing my running shoes everywhere and not been going barefoot.  I ordered some KT tape and I am hoping to tape it as well as my IT band and I am crossing my fingers that I can do my 12 mile run Sunday without pain.  If I am still hurting considerably I plan to skip it and just rest until the half and hope that I make it through most of it without pain.  Here's hoping.

About Boston

Source

Today, as I was sitting on the couch folding laundry and watching the Boston Marathon, I was laughing with my husband.  He was joking with me about how running has taken over my life and that he thought it was funny that I was watching the marathon.  I told him that I don't think that I will ever qualify for Boston but it is such an iconic event that I want to be a part of it and I want to go volunteer for it in the near future.  Shortly after about the first 10 men and women came in I shut off the t.v and went about my day cleaning the house.

Then came the news....

Source

The Husband walked in the door and asked me if I had seen the explosions?  What explosions??? I immediately hit Twitter and saw the many tweets about the explosion.  I turned on CNN and instantly got chills watching the coverage.  It shook me to my core.  These are my people! Even though I am new to running, the running community is a strong one that I feel to be a part of already.  I take this as a personal attack!  I am horrified this has happened and I am still watching the coverage constantly waiting on more news. My thoughts are with all of those who were affected by this event.

Tomorrow I will be out on a 5 mile training run but I will be running for Boston.  For those who can't run.  For those who were injured, lost their lives, or lost a family member. For those who didn't get to finish possibly their dream run today because of this act.

Source

One of THOSE weeks...

This has been one of those weeks.  I am sure you know the ones.  Where nothing is seeming to go right and you're crabby, and nothing can make you happy?  I have had one of those.  It has been terrible on my sleep schedule which in turn has been bad on my workout schedule.  This is what my schedule should look like this week:

Week	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
4	Stretch & strengthen 50 each: Pushups Squats Situps	3.5 m run Didn't  Complete	2 m run or cross Didn't  Complete	3.5 m run + strength	Rest	40 min cross	5 m run

I am pretty embarrassed to say that I have done... ummm. one of those so far?!  I did my stretch and strengthen on Monday with a circuit of 10 pushups, situps, and squats 5 times.  The next two days I felt VERY blah and didn't end up doing anything those nights.  I suppose if I don't get myself in gear tonight that 3.5 miles won't be happening either!

I told The Husband about my lack of motivation and progress this week tonight on FaceTime and he did a great job of trying to get me motivated and reminding me what I am working toward.  I should run tomorrow but I am glad that it is a scheduled rest day because Wyldman has his 5th birthday party on Saturday and Friday is going to be spent with last minute party prep.  I plan to do my 40 min cross on the evening after the birthday party and then a 5 mile run again Sunday. It is supposed to be great weather and The Husband is planning to run with me but cutting the route a tad shorter.



Run Like a Girl

Another reminder about the Run Like a Girl- Be Strong race that Dawn is doing to support the Girls on the Run in NE Tennessee.  There are awesome giveaways as well as great bling to go with the series and it supports a great cause!  Please go check out the race HERE or go straight to sign-up HERE.

The "I-Think-I-Can's"

This has definitely been one of the harder weeks for my running since I have started back in the New Year.  I had a REALLY hard time getting myself onto the treadmill for my 2 runs this week.  I opted to do cross training on Wednesday instead of the 2 mile run.  My run on Tuesday was 3.5 miles in 40:03 and Thursday's 3.5 miles came in at 37:21.  I am still aggravated with my times but I know the more I push and the harder I work the better they will become.  I keep having to remind myself that I just started back at the beginning of January after many, MANY months of hardly any exercise.

I had what I try to think of as the "I-Think-I-Cans" during those 2 tough runs.  I would look at my time and think "I'm a third of the way there," or "I'm half way there," or " Only 1 more mile, that's NOTHING," just to keep myself going.  My body just wanted to give up and get off the treadmill but my mind kept telling me that I had weigh-in the next morning and a half marathon looming ahead in just a few weeks.  Needless to say, I finished, but I wasn't super happy during the run!

Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
3	Stretch & strengthen	3.5 m run 40:03	2 m run or cross	3.5 m run + strength 37:21	Rest	40 min cross	5 m run

But in happier news, The Husband made it home this weekend so that means a nice outside run this weekend!  He is planning to hit the bike path with me either running with me or on his bike for the 5 miles tomorrow.  He hasn't run since I did last spring so 5 miles is quite a bit to jump right into!  Tonight after we put the kidlets to bed the plan is to do my circuit training from pinterest and then any leftover time from that I am going to walk on the treadmill at a moderate pace.  Tomorrow is the big 5 mile run.  I am looking forward to showing myself I can do it as well as scared that I may not be able to...

Here is my route for tomorrow..  I will have to update when I finish. =) Also, I still need to link up to my friends virtual race series.  I am hoping to sign up this week.



Happy running!