totals
s: 3,875 yds (4x)
b: 27.5 mi (2x)
r: 56.2 mi (6x)
days totally off: 1

M, T, W were long days. Thursday and Friday I went home around 4 pm both days and collapsed into bed super early because I was so tired. Friday I'd donated blood, which I am pleased to say was pretty painless :-) Saturday was a fun day - helped out at the grad student union conference (I was in charge of picking up lunch, set up, clean up) and it was both social time and nice to do some mindless, finite tasks like washing a lot of dishes. Then I trick or treated at my advisor's house - I was a rook. She just moved to a new place. It is awesome. I wonder if she will adopt me... on Sunday my body just didn't feel up to any sports. I did some work, watched a movie, read, napped, and tried to find new fabric for the quilt I'm working on (this was unsuccessful). One problem with rest days for me is food; I tend to eat crap. I kept that moderately in check yesterday, whereas on rest days in previous instances I've totally binged.

This week I fly to East Lansing for a conference (fly Wed., fly back Sunday). I am a bit nervous about all of this. Trying to think of a strategy to both not binge, and not stress over food. I will have most of Thursday to nap and adjust to the time change and settle in. I'm also excited for the conference; they are always pretty motivating. I also think I will treat myself to a couple new books so I have something entertaining if I get antsy or have downtime (like at the airport).

I'm collecting dissertation data right now so that is making school happily busy!

Did anyone see any super cool Halloween costumes?

ETA - forgot to write goals. Swim M,T,W at the very least (hoping for a good pool in Michigan, like the MSU pool, or at least a hotel pool - my tethers are packed). Keep run miles under control... hoping for a hotel exercise bike... the real goal for this week is to handle eating ok :P

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

I am happy to be back at work today. 4 year old sleepovers involve very little sleep & at least one VERY cranky kid (mine) the next day. Halloween was great - the kids had fun & my dog was surprising chill with people coming to the door. I think it helped that they were kids, she loves kids.

Cutest costumes were the teeny tiny skunk & monkey. Put a toddler in something furry & they are bound to be adorable.

My big highlight was running a sub 30-min 5km on Saturday. Not impressive by objective standards, but I'll take it. Wasn't as bad as I thought & I did well mentally (ie I didn't stop). I really need more endurance though, so my little 20 min runs are turning into 5km runs as of today.

There are snowflakes coming out of the sky but nothing is sticking on the ground. I guess it's a good thing we did some basement cleaning on the weekend & unearthed the treadmill - winter will be here soon.

interesting week last week. I started PT, I had to call them after visit #2 and request to work with someone else. Just not a good fit with regards to personality.
I'm going back tomorrow am, and therefore am a tad nervous. Only folks that work the early shift are the guy I asked NOT to work with and one other. I said I'd gladly work with the other guy.
Swam once, biked 4 times. Tried a really wee short easy run (2mi, super slow). Left leg would be OK to do some running. Right leg not. So, I'll have to wait until after I see my miracle massage guy again on the 18th (wish it was this week!). He did two different techniques on each leg and the left is clearly doing better than the right.


Goals for this week - swim 1x, bike 6x, strength / core PT exercises.

Last week's goals:
Swim x 1: win
Run x 2: win with 3
Core/strength x 2: win
Foam roll/stretch x 3: fail. 2 only


So...Horror Hill 6-hour on Saturday. Knee started to hurt during the first loop (18mins), went steadily downhill until the 3hr mark when I simply could not run on it anymore. Kept on walking/hiking, telling myself I could quit whenever I wanted as my goals had been:


1) to make it through 5k (2 loops),
2) to make it over an hour,
3) to make it over 10k
4) to get through 1.5hrs
5) hang on for 3hrs
6) make it more than 25k (there were 5k, 10k, 25k, 50k and 6-hour races all going on)
7) try for over 30k


..and finally managing to hang in there for the whole 6 hours, which is what I did. When it started to hurt to walk after the 4th hour I kept saying "I think this may be my last loop", but I'd only done 25k by that point and when I got to 4h40m I realized I'd only have time for about 2 more loops. I knew I'd hate myself if I stopped at that point, so just kept on trucking. The steep uphills and downhills on the 2.5k loop were tough - I'd have to sort of limp my way up and down them - but the knee feels about the same as it did after the Vulture Bait 50k (where the original damage was done). I only managed a personal worst of 33.34km (it took me almost 3hrs to get to 20k), but still won 3rd woman overall in the 6-hour...which I figure isn't too shabby for a gimp.


Oh, and I ran in costume for the whole race, 'cause it was on Halloween and what good is taking yourself seriously when going into an ultra already injured?






In an interesting coincidence, Saturday also marked my 100th time making my way up this damn hill in the middle of the loop - this was the 6th year I've done the same race.






An amazing ultrarunner acquaintance of mine is also a massage therapist, and she came out to the race toward the end to cheer on the runners. She saw me walking and asked my husband what was wrong, so he filled her in and she was all too eager to try to help me resolve this knee issue when I talked to her after the race. I happened to win a free hour-long massage from her as a door prize, so I'm actually going to see her this evening to start working this thing out. They had RMTs at the race as well, so I was able to get a bit of work done on it just after I finished.


This week's goals:
swim x 2
bike x 1
run x 1
core/strength x 2
foam roll/stretch x 3


Just taking things chill for now as that was my last race of the season. Hoping I can get this injury resolved so I can get back to carefree running before the snow flies and makes things treacherous outside.

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__________________________________________________________
ill advised racing inc.

Brave of you to keep racing injured. I'd be too scared of doing more damage.

good for you to hang in there. now go get healed up! :-)

last week's plans:
- skate 5x - DONE
- run 3x - FAIL only ran twice but felt good
- ride 2x - DONE
- swim 1x - FAIL - see below
- drills/core 1x - Small D done - did some as part of working with the skating kids to teach them some basic drills.

My weekend was a wreck, I completely overdid it with shitty food and alcohol and lack of sleep and got a lot less done than wanted, oh plus forgot about the time change and didn't even take advantage of the extra hour to sleep, man I SUCK. I felt like garbage all day Sunday. Total self-sabotage. I decided to take a day or two to clean up my intakes. Then get back at it.

This week: 2 more weeks until next meet - time to focus!
- skate 5x
- run 3x
- ride 2x
- swim 1x
- drills/core 1x
- eat better/drink less/sleep more.

EDIT: My right foot started bugging me and I could feel the PF like symptoms coming back. So I'll skip the running this week and massage w/ golf ball (only thing that works for me). I have 4 meets left in 2015 and can't afford to have foot problems. AP

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

 supposedly an Outdoor MSU pool 50m open until snowfall. Not sure if it's open to the public or not. Got the info from a friend who swam at MSU.

That would be a dream! Thanks!
Got my M,T,W swims in... 1000 yds before getting on the bus to the airport. Yay!!!

How was PT?

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

PT went fine. It was thoroughly OK, I worked with the other fellow and not the conflicting personality guy. No fuss. Whew.

My insurance approved only 6 visits. Sigh. Seriously? They think this can be fixed in 6 visits? Ugh.
Well, the bright side is my insurance is great for some stuff, just PT isn't one of them.

I started my allergy shots on Wed.! yay! Other than forgetting which floor they were on (5th, not 3rd), and waiting 20 mins before they took me back to get the shot, and the 30 min wait after for re-check, I feel REALLY good about the process and starting them. I'm hopeful to get off the allergy meds for next summer, or the following summer.
I'm actually also looking forward to a couple of good freezes overnight so I can stop the antihistamine. I'm scheduled out through Dec. 2.

I got out for a ride yesterday! yahoo! We've had super warm weather for this time of year and I hurried and busted out a glorious 45 mi ride. The husband got out a bit after me and rode out to meet me. So we were able to ride most of the way back together.