Whoa.

 I have run over 1,000 kilometres since November.

HOLY CRAP.

I didn't expect to put in that kind of mileage in my first year of running, let alone the last 6 months. Guess I have to stop calling myself a slacker! :P

Happy trails!

~Pam

Accepting setbacks and forging ahead

Yeah, not so good with the blogging. :D  However, am ROCKING the running, even if it's only in my own mind.

Had a rough couple of weeks, got beat down by a pinky blister that refused to go away then, just as I finally got in a couple of runs in, I was beat down again by some weirdo cold/flu. Two weeks of reduced mileage; I was tweaking hard. HARD. I'd get jealous of random runners as I passed them in my car, not-so-secretly wishing to be in their shoes instead of mine. Then came the irrational fear part: what if I couldn't regain my former mileage glory? What if that whole cut back week theory was a LIE?!?!

Now obviously I know better, but still... I am rather amused how irrational I was getting over something so minor. But as everyone with a schedule to keep finds when delays set in, the brain comes up with extremely creative ways to magnify the situation and turn it into a freak show.

Needless to say, I did get over it. Probably ran a bit sooner than I should have but well, I can only sit still for so long.

Now that my brain has calmed down, I have turned my wicked ways towards tormenting my feet. Heh.

Picked up a pair of the Vibram Five Fingers in groovy fuschia, although have yet to get them outside other than a cursory run around my back yard, giggling like a schoolgirl. My gnarly pinky toes haven't adapted yet but given my masochistic tendencies it won't be too much longer until I'm tooling around the paths in them. Grass only though; my feet aren't very fleshy. :(  Apparently this is something to adjust slowly to, so given my complete and utter lack of patience this will be a new challenge.

And just to make things more complicated for my feet... I went and had a custom orthotic made. Feels like heaven! I've read mixed things about orthotics but I like to try things for myself, even if it turns into an epic fail. So far so good though. Going to take them on a 20k trail run tomorrow so we'll see how much I love them tomorrow night! Haha (OK, I am not supposed to run this long in them tomorrow but see above paragraph for reasoning of bad behaviour) :D

Happy running everyone!
Pam

I'm an Athlete

Pam and I have started to put long runs back to back.  Like last weekend we did 20km on Saturday and then I followed it with a 32km on Sunday.  Sunday was hard, but not as hard as the very first time I did 29km and thought I was going to die.  My hips were killing me that run and I was starting to wondering how much more effect it would take if I started to crawl.  But I made it through, just as I made it through the 32km this weekend.

I was pumped going into the weekend.  Maybe it was becasue my Chiroprator that 2 months ago was wondering if running maybe wasn't the best choice for my body, told me Friday that long distances looked good on me, and that my body wasn't a mess anymore.  I was in great shape to run.  He was surprised, but I was surprised more when he called me an athlete.  I zoned out for a couple minutes after that, at 30 years old I'm an athlete??? Really this coming from a guy that treats football player, is actually calling me an athlete, no way this is GREAT.  Funny how when I was in High School playing basketball all the time being an athlete was no big deal, it was easy to run around, throw a ball, but at thirty it's like a badge of honor. Something that I want to scream out at the world, "Hey world, look at me I'm an ATHLETE.  Ya that's right, me the person that 2 years ago was pretty sure running more than 5 mins wasn't possible"  But I won't, I will tell people about how 2 years ago I liked my couch more than my runners, and that I don't ever want to go back there, and hope that more people will get off the couch and join the ranks of us athletes.  It a pretty cool place to be. 

Sabrina