Road to Recovery
I'm starting to think that this whole "vitamin I" and rest thing is actually working on my muscle strain. Today I don't even feel it at all. Lately it hasn't been painful, but I've often noticed it when walking or turning my leg a certain way. This morning I woke up, after being without ibuprofen for about 9 hours and I didn't even feel it. Of course I still popped my 4 pills just because I don't want to stop taking them prematurely and have the discomfort/pain come back. I'm starting to see a light at the end of this injury though and I'm hoping to put in a few miles by the middle of next week. It's been hard to gear down and step away from the cardio and just let it rest. But now that I can tell it's actually making a difference I'm going to stick with it. I've found a training routine that should get me ready in 6 weeks, which is about all I have left until the half.
In other event news, the registration for the Seattle
Danskin Triathlon opens Tuesday February 26th. Finally! Then I can stop obsessing and checking the site about a million times a day as I have since the beginning of the month when registration was supposed to open. There is a very limited number of spaces (about 3000 I believe) and it fills up quickly, so I have to be sure to get on it at soon as it opens. Then I'll sign up for the Team Danskin Training, to the tune of $259, however it's apparently a really good program and a friend of mine is actually going to be the workout leader. Also, I'm planning on signing up for swim lessons at the Y starting at the end of March, which seems completely lame, but I haven't actually swam in years so it's pretty necessary.
Things are looking good all over. Not to mention, it's Friday, the sun is shining and other than a fabulous private party with
Amanda Palmer,
Estradasphere and
Jason Webley, we don't have anything going on this weekend other than sleeping in and probably some cleaning.
Sidelined
I am officially sidelined from running for at least the next week. In fact, other than a little 2 mile test run I haven't run since the 9th. Somehow during that week I managed to pull/strain a muscle in my inner upper leg/groin area. I don't know if it was from running, weight lifting or coughing, or perhaps a combination of all three. I seem to recall while doing some lower body weights that I felt something that didn't feel quite right. I think that combined with an 8 mile hilly run exasperated the situation. I was fine during my 8 mile run, but right after it hurt. It hurt to walk, it hurt to sit. It
hurt. Currently it doesn't hurt so much as I'm aware of it. If I overdo it (by walking to much or running 2 miles) it gets kind of bothered.
I took a week off from running and tested the waters with a slow 2 mile run on Monday. I could still feel it after the run so I went to the doctor yesterday. She told me to take 3-4 ibuprofen 3 times a day for a week (or possibly two, depending) and not to run during that time. I think I was pretty annoying because I was trying to figure out what I could do exactly so I don't just sit around like a lump on the couch doing nothing. I was all "so, what about heat and stretching?" and she was like "yes, heat would be good, stretching, no", "so that means bikram is out then?" I think she wanted to shake some sense into me at that point! I know I have to give myself some time to heal, but at the same time going from being super active to practically inactive is hard to get my head around. Basically, I can't do yoga, or run, or anything that would make the strain worse (elliptical, dance, step, etc). We determined that I could probably get away with some cycling and that's about it. I know that I have to give it time to heal and the ibuprofen should help with any inflammation. So instead of push it and run to the gym and hop on a bike for an hour, I've decided to take a break and maybe fit in some upper body, abs and pilates (though nothing that works the legs) in the meantime. Also, while I'm not spending hours running or at the gym I suppose I could be cleaning and sorting and baking cookies. Because I mean, if I can't work out I may as well eat a ton of freshly baked cookies, right?
It's hard not being able to run, especially since I'm in the midst of training for the
Whidbey Island Half Marathon that's taking place April 13th. I do think however, that I should be okay by then. If I take it slow and allow myself some time to heal, I should probably be able to step up the training and do okay with 6 weeks to prepare. Granted I won't be running a great half, I'm not even thinking at this point that I'm going to run the whole thing. I might run a mile, then walk some, and just walk/run the whole thing. It's my first half anyway, so of course it's not going to be spectacular. It'll give me a time to beat on my next half though!
The Great Apple Challenge of '08 - Conclusion
It is safe to say the apple challenge is officially over. Even though there was another apple that we tried that I didn't even bother to review (red rome, beautiful color,
VERY mealy) and a number of apples we could have tried, we were able to come to a pretty firm conclusion. And the winner is...
*drum roll*
Jazz!
We settled on the Jazz because it had the best flavor out of all the apples we tried. It wasn't quite as crisp as the Honeycrisp, but it still managed to have a decent crunch. It was by far the flavor that won us over. Sweet, juicy and just a little tart. This week we've been having nothing but Jazz and they've been consistently good.
In other news I've been sick with some horrible flu/cold thing this past week. I am just finally starting to feel better today, so I think I'll hit Alki after work for a slow 5 mile run. I've been pretty much out of commission since Saturday and I'm just itching to get a decent run in. I will make sure not to overdo it though. I don't want to be sick when we go to San Francisco next week.
