Running Chick

Whelp, my hope that I wouldn’t miss any runs fell flat. I have no idea what, exactly, I did to my ankle but hooboy it’s mad at me.  People keep on asking me if I rolled it. Nope, didn’t roll it.  I also didn’t kick it, run it over with the car or inflict any sort trauma upon it. As far as I can tell, and this is probably grasping, I ran on an uneven surface on worn out shoes.  For the first week I thought it was my peroneal tendon that I’d offended but now it seems like my Achilles also had it’s feelings hurt.

The Achilles thing makes make a bit nervous because way back when when I was an step aerobics going gym-rat, I tore my Achilles and was on crutches and gimped around for a good six weeks. Then it took another six months for it to not ache when I went for short walks and probably a full year for it to completely recover. I’m nowhere near that bad, but every time I get a twang in that area, I get a little apprehensive.

Anyway, it is getting better. I’m only walking with a slight limp now as compared to the zombie shuffle I’d been doing since last Monday.  I’m hoping to get back on the road next week, but ultimately my plan is run on the day in which I walk down the hall and forget that I hurt my ankle in the first place.

Until that time, biking!

My trusty road bike has been attached to my trainer in my living room since, um, April? Don’t worry, it was serving a very important purpose. Collecting dust, clothes, hats and purses is a tough job that not every bike can stand up to. That’s probably why it was so expensive.

Anyway, I uncovered and freed it and off we went on a 22 mile ride on Saturday afternoon. My legs were confused. This was not running! They got used to it.  Back in May when we were in Madison, I bought a tri bag for my bike, which I thought I’d be able to use for quick access to my phone. Currently I store it either in my Camelbak or my seat bag and both require acrobatics and stopping when my phone rings. I figured this little bag would solve all my problems. Wrong! When I mounted it as the picture instructed, it hit my knees. I moved it around to the back of the frame and it hit my thighs. Pretty much wherever I put it, some part of me was getting scraped. I think my bike is too short framed. Or something. I’m not really sure, but I’m bummed.

I rode through Dodgeville and Atlantic Mine, took the Covered Drive (is that capitalized?) to Liminga Road. The Covered Drive, which is usually pretty gravelly, was nice and smooth. I was able to really cruise down it. And take pictures.

Here’s me attempting to look disappointed that I’m not running. Fail.

This shot is mostly to remind myself that I need to re-tape my handlebars. Except that I have no idea how to do it. Do the brakes come off? They must. Maybe I can pay somebody to do it for me. James?

Here’s a glamorous shot of my MTB on the Nara trail.  I rode the trial yesterday, then biked along with Josh when he did his run. Head on over to his site to see another sexy picture of me in my biking garb and for actual running recaps.

This little wet bun was hanging out in the pouring rain when I got home from work the other day. He posed long enough for me to snap a few pics and then took off.

Hopefully back to running will happen before too long. Until then, my posts might be picture light. It’s a serious pain in the ass to take pictures while biking.

Well shoot. I done injured myself.  I’m not even sure how it happened or what happened for that matter, but whatever I did, my right ankle is not pleased with me.  I did four miles by myself this morning and then met up with Josh and took off for his 25 minute session but shortly into that run, increasing pain forced me to bail and he had to finish up all by himself.  Now I’m hobbling around, icing and taking IB, hopefully this will improve quickly and I won’t end up missing any runs. 

I’ve had ankle injuries before, but they typically involve me stepping off the edge of the pavement and taking a major knee/hand crash in the middle of the road resulting in this lovely road rash from back in 2007:

My ankle was sprained, complete with swelling and bruising and the palm of the hand I came down on looked pretty much like my knee.  That happened about 15 days before my first half marathon at the half-way mark of a ten-mile run. I was a bloody mess, but I finished my run. DUMB.

Injury aside, I finished up the week with 18 miles. Something tells me that the upcoming week will be considerably less.

Remember my poor red eyes from last week? I cursed ragweed pollen, but it turns out that this stuff was the culprit.

My eye doc said I’m probably allergic to it. I ended up with a bunch of special drops, new solution and instructions to wear glasses until the weekend.

That meant I had to run in glasses. Not cool.

p.s. I’m glistening, not sweating.

I’ve been developing some unpleasant allergies to things lately. In addition to the contact solution, I also developed a allergy (or maybe sensitivity is more accurate) to my toothpaste and lip balm.  I’ve used Colgate Cavity Protection and for years, but it started irritating my lips and the inside of my mouth so I recently switched to the all-natural Burt’s Bees Multi-care toothpaste and switched my lip balm from good old Chapstick to an all natural product called Eos. After using both products exclusively for about three days, my lip & mouth irritation disappeared. Good things.

Other things going on this week….MDOT was busy re-painting lines on the road this week. Right where I wanted to cross.

The City is re-doing the sewer system just down the street from me. I think these are for the manholes. Or something sewer related.

We finished up a late Friday night run with this pretty sunset.

On Saturday morning, we headed up to Calumet to watch James in the Great Deer Chase. Here’s the rollout, see anybody you know?

And the finish. Woo James.

On the way home, we stopped at the little fruit & veggie stand in Calumet.

We got some nice looking veggies there, but we really struck gold at the Hughes Farm on Golf Course Road.

They had pretty much everything and I’m thinking it’ll be a regular stop on the weekend grocery shopping circuit.

We ended up with quite the bounty. Yummy.

Finally, I’m completely obsessed with MarineTraffic.com. 

The amateur radio club I’m involved in, the KCRA, was involved in getting a receiver up & running at Mt. Horace Greeley (old radar base) site and now we can see all the ships that are cruising around (transmitting their gps signals) the Keweenaw.  I like to look at places in the world where I think the bazillionaires hang out with their bazillion dollar yachts (Dubai, for example).  Also, all the traffic along the Mississippi River is crazy. How do they not all run into each other? Anyway, if you want to waste a few hours, check it out.

Time for more icing.

Another week of summer gone by, another week closer to winter. Ha, just kidding. Not really.

I had another good running week, ending up with just over 19 miles total. Aside from a nasty between-the-toes blister caused by the 4” heels I wore to work one day, all is good. Josh has been doing great with the C25k program. His long run on Saturday was 20 minutes which he passed with flying colors. He’s blogging about his progress over at runningchunk.com, head over & check it out.

Remember when I got my Garmin Footpod?  I’ve been using it for right around a month, and I’d say that it’s just okay. I’m still seeing major dips in the data, which I thought was due to dying batteries, but I replaced them and it’s still happening. I’m not sure what could be causing the issue. I haven’t calibrated it, so perhaps that should be my next step.

This is what my eyes have looked like for the last week or so - red, weepy, itchy, puffy, burny (burney?). Damn ragweed pollen. I’ve been putting off going to the eye doctor’s but today a co-worked commented that my eyes looked painful (read: gross) so I suppose I should go.

Pictures of the week!

The Nara Trail has one section with plants to tall that they make a tunnel. I feel like I’m in the movie “Antz” every time I run through.

I’ve run past the St. Ignatius Loyola parish school many times, but never really bothered to stop and look around. It was opened in 1887 and closed in 1970. I didn’t venture inside, but it looks to be in pretty good shape, still.

Sunny day rainstorms always perplex me. Weather is so confusing.

Pilgrim River early on Saturday morning.

My and my exploding braid.

We bought some saffron that was so expensive that now I’m afraid to use it.

The Koop!

A portion of the Ham crew. There were 12 of us in total.

Net control station.

Transition area. The carpeted mats were used on the swim exit and they’re laying out in the sun to dry. Athlete wetsuits are hanging on the bike racks, which are empty because all the competitors were on the bike course. Did you spot the Great Dane? He was really friendly. And big.

The new dock at the Lac La Belle marina.

Finisher’s medals. 66 people started (which includes team members), 64 finished. I think there were a few DNFs because they missed the cut-offs, but they were allowed to finish anyway. The fastest person finished the 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run in 4:27:59.1. Sometimes after a good run, I think that I’m allowed to group myself in the same category as these folks, but after watching these awesome athletes compete, I’m reminded that I’m not even in the same stratosphere.

Sea planes from Duluth, MN manned by twin brothers.  They flew up here just to compete and shortly after they finished, off they went.

Finished.