Three Things Whatever Day It Is

THING #1: According to random.org, the winner of The Fro Yo Run entry is ROSE RUNNER!! Check your email, lady; there's a code coming your way.

ALSO, Jen at RunningTangents also has an entry to give away, and I think hers is open until Wednesday night, so if anyone wants another shot, get over to her blog today or tomorrow!

If you're so inclined, you can still get a four-pack for $150, and there's a $5 coupon available here.

THING #2: Injury Update:

Since I stopped running three weeks ago, I've been trying to keep up my fitness by doing workouts on the elliptical. The down side is that I can only do that on week days since my gym is by my office 30 miles away, so my "runs" have pretty much been capped at about an hour. (Also, elliptical is never super comfortable for me so I doubt I'd do much more than that anyway.) Since I can't really do tons of volume right now, I've been trying to balance things out with mostly interval "speed work" instead, which has the added benefit of making the time go by faster.

My leg has felt pretty good in the last week, so this past Monday I decided to take a shot at the first step in my sensible-return-to-running plan (more or less the same program my PT had me follow with my stress fracture last year): 1:00 jog followed by 2:00 walking. The goal is to do 30 minutes (so 10 intervals), but I was definitely not above stopping if it started to hurt at all. Thankfully, though, there was no pain and I completed the entire thing. Winning! (Or, y'know, breaking even, which I will totally take.)

The idea is to do a 30:00 walk-run session every other day (as long as there is no pain), gradually increasing the time spent running & decreasing the walking. So tomorrow it's another 10 intervals, this time 90 seconds on/90 seconds off.

Even though there is no pain, I can still tell that my body is super hesitant about bearing weight on my left arch through each stride & tries all sorts of tricks to avoid it. And it's kind of funny & amazing, how every time that starts to happen, I can feel some old injury start to complain. The more I think about it and pay attention to my body, the more I honestly feel like I can trace nearly every running injury I've ever had back to this one issue, which is both awesome (there might actually be *one* root cause!) and terrifying (if I can't fix it, I'm basically screwed).

THING 3: YOU GUYS I AM TRAVELING FOR FUN!!

I haven't traveled anywhere for fun since January, so next week we're taking off for Portland/Willamette Valley. Current plans include tooling around the city drinking beer & eating ridiculous food for a couple of days, then drinking All The Wine in the northern valley/eating more ridiculous food, then hiking the Columbia Gorge for a few days/drinking more beer. I mean yes, I'm supposed to be celebrating a marathon PR, but far be it from me to complain. The way I see it, this just means I get another cool trip come January.

Portland

Willamette Valley

Columbia Gorge

And yes, if my pictures don't look *exactly* like this, I am going to be disappointed.