Back on Board

Well hello!

A month has gone by... seriously I am a slacker.  I have no excuse, I was just neglecting my poor little blog.  Maybe the Oregon rain was depressing me?  Who knows.  The good news is - I am back.  Let's use this time to do a run down with the latest...

I was in Utah in May.  Remember that marathon I signed up for?  Yeah - REALLY wish I wouldn't have announced that!  In February (yep 4 months ago), while training, I strained my hip flexor.  For a couple months I thought nothing of it, the pain wasn't bad enough to completely stop running. So I just would run and ice, convinced it would work itself out.  Turns out I am not 18 anymore and my body doesn't just "work itself out".  The pain moved to my back and about 3 weeks before the marathon I was pretty sure 26 miles wasn't happening since walking across a parking lot took it all out of me.  I broke down - saw a doctor.  He pushed on my tender muscle and showed me the worst pain I have EVER felt.  If I would have been able to breathe, I might have punched him.  The injury is in my psoas muscle. The psoas is a hip flexor muscle that attaches to your lumbar spine and wraps around your pelvic bone and ends at your hip.  It's super deep and almost impossible to touch.  It's really contracted and tight.  Because it's tight it's pulling on my spine, hence the back pain. The doctor moved my back around and I walked out of his office with the most relief I had felt in my back for a long time.  2 hours later the pain was back, I guess this won't be a quick fix.  8 weeks of no aggressive activity was his recommendation for recovery.  Well I don't really have 8 weeks in my schedule.  We were 2 weeks before the marathon and 6 weeks (now less than 2) before the relay I run every year - I told him as much.  He tried to understand - he said a marathon was insane and would probably be a big let down because of the pain.  I took his advice, switched to the half marathon (so much less insane).  I suppose my 8 week recovery begins June 20th (after the relay).  So instead of my A game, I guess I am bringing my B (maybe C) game for a while.... UGH, frustrating!!

The half marathon actually went pretty well.  The pain wasn't terrible until mile 8.  I always say mile 8 is the turning point of a half because 5 more miles isn't intimidating. Plus, I knew my grandparents would be happily waiting at the finish line - seeing how excited they were made it all worth it!  

What else...

Shannon and Dan had a baby!!  CRAZY!  You can see her, Piper, for yourself here.  I can hardly believe it - It's amazing to see them move into parenthood.  They're tired and happy all signs they are doing a great job.  She is adorable, tiny, perfect and I can't help but want to squeeze her.  She looks EXACTLY like Shannon, her feet and eyes are almost spot on, it's amazing.  I know I am going to be the annoying adult in her life that always says, I knew your mom when she was your age... blah blah... but now I know why adults can't help it saying things like that!  It's amazing to see life progress.  Isn't she a doll?

Also....

Over Memorial Day Ben and I went to Bend.  Between crazy work schedules, parties, weddings, wedding showers, travelling and just craziness it was nice to have a weekend away.  We ate, went hiking, bought candy, ate candy, ate ice cream, went running and just hung out, did I mention we ate candy? -  all the ingredients for a perfect weekend away!

Now that I am back on board with blogging I promise to update with pictures and cleverness.  Deneal is getting married in a month and Piper will keep growing and do awesome baby stuff - so if nothing else I will have them to talk about!  :-) 

Stay Tuned! 

7 minutes faster?!?!

So on Saturday Traci, Ingrid and I ran the Ogden Half Marathon. It was so much fun! The course is through Ogden canyon to the Ogden Parkway and ends in Washington Sq. It is so pretty, such a nice course, and the weather was beautiful! We did this run last year too and next to the Moab runs, this is one of my favorites! Not to mention that they have the worlds best volunteers. They were very attentive and so helpful. Even when I crossed the finish line, I bent over to breathe really and one was right over there asking if I was ok. So nice! And they were handing out bags of ice - which I have never seen. Volunteers at all these races are usually great, but these people were exceptionally sweet. Bryce was also very sweet to drive to Ogden that morning to watch all of us finish. I can't imagine that's a very fun thing to watch, but he did it with a smile. The best part of the whole day though was my finish time... 7 minutes faster than I have ever been!! That might not sound like a lot, but that averages about 32 seconds faster each mile and in running time, 30 seconds off a mile is a lot! I usually don't get crazy about my finish time, frankly I figure finishing period is an accomplishment enough, but taking this much time off without strict training makes me wonder what I could do if I seriously trained! Last year when I did this exact same race I was 11 minutes slower. Every race that I have done I have gradually gotten faster, usually it is by 2 - 4 minutes, but never such a jump. It makes me wonder what I did this time that was so different... maybe it's because I knew the course better, or I have been cycling more, or because I have made a conscious effort to drink a lot of water, or the sugar that I took out of my diet the week before (that was crappy)... I really don't know why, but I am happy all the same! Best race ever... Next Race... Wasatch Back June 20 and 21!