Trying to Stay Positive

I have been avoiding blogging lately because I don't want to come here and be super negative because who wants to hear all of that! I am finally coming to terms with what all of this may mean for me so I guess I should talk about it. Life is not always perfect so here it goes..

This past week was probably one of the toughest weeks that I have had in a long time. Why? Because I did not run a single mile! After trying out a new pair of neutral shoes, I developed a bad pain in my hip that kind of radiated to my IT Band. The hip pain has gotten a lot better but the IT Band pain is still there and it has this weird burning sensation. I don't think that I have ever felt that before. I have to say that it was the shoes because I did not have this pain until after I ran in them. It is amazing how shoes can make such a difference in your running!

On a positive note, I think I may have found my Wave Inspire 9's that I have been desperately searching for. Since they are no longer made, I figured that if a website didn't have my size then they were no longer a future prospect for me. It turns out that www.holabirdsports.com was showing my size on their website on Friday night when they had not in the past. The website allowed me to buy two pair so I did. I just need an email confirming my order so I know that this is actually going to happen. The last two stores that claimed to have my shoes did not. After placing my order, they sent me emails stating that their inventory was incorrect and they refunded my money. Amazon seems to get more sizes in on a regular basis but they never seem to have my size. I think they had it once and when I went to buy it, it was no longer available. 

I did hop on the elliptical for 45 minutes on Friday and that was doable. I had no pain but it was painful to be on that treadmill staring all of the runners on the treadmills in front of me. I think they need to put one elliptical for me somewhere in the corner facing the wall for the time being lol!

I have been icing, foam rolling and most of all crying NOT running. Not being able to run is the hardest especially now that the weather has decided to cool down. We have had perfect running weather for the past week and that kills me even more. 

I am really worried about my two races that are coming up in the next couple of weeks. I Ragnar So Cal in a couple of weeks and I don't want to let my team down. I won't run through this pain so hopefully something changes before then. I only have 12 miles to run so that is the positive thing but I need to be able to run. I won't do anything stupid! I also have my goal BQ race on May 25th. I am thinking that is probably not going to happen now since I have lost two weeks of very critical training and the race is just 8 weeks away. I am hoping to be there but will definitely have to adjust my goals and possibly find another marathon to target at a later time. I am hoping to be able to run next week but if not, I will have to sit down and figure all of this out. THIS SUCKS! Sorry, I had to say that...

In the meantime, I am trying to stay as positive as I possibly can and hopefully my family won't move out of the house to avoid me and my mood swings!

How do you stay positive when you are injured?

Shoe Problems and a Less than Stellar Week....

Talk about a crappy week! That is exactly that I had. I have been trying to transition from my Mizuno Wave Inspire 9's to the new Wave Inspire 10's and I have not been so lucky. The 10's seem to be okay when I run under 8 miles but anything more than that causes me to have pain in my left calf and my right shin. I didn't think it was the shoes at first but after seriously evaluating the situation, I know that it is the shoes. The transition from the 8's to the 9's went really well but something feels really different with the 10's. 

I love my Wave Inspire 9's and I cannot find them in my size anywhere! I even emailed Mizuno to see if they could give me some tips on stores to find them but I had already checked all of the stores they suggested. I am bummed and kind of in a panic. LA Marathon is less than two weeks away and my 9's are coming up on 400 miles. I don't think I have ever ran a marathon with shoes that have this many miles on them. I was hoping to be adjusted to the 10's by the time LA Marathon rolled around but that did not happen!

I had to cut my mileage way back this week because I did not want to run while I was still having those lingering pains. Running was not painful but the areas that were bothering me were very painful when I touched them. I am proud of myself for having enough sense to scale back the miles. I was tempted so many times to go for a run but I knew that it was not the smartest thing to do with LA Marathon right around the corner. I also skipped out on my long run but did have a great run with my other half. I love running with him because he is just so easy going about running and I always enjoy my runs with him.

I ran my first 8K today and really wanted to give it my best shot but held back a little because I was afraid that the pain would return and LA Marathon would be out the window for the second time. I had to sit the LA Marathon out back in 2012 due to an injury and watching it on TV was pretty painful!

So I am not sure what I am going to do about my shoes moving forward. I am a big Mizuno fan so maybe a different style of their shoes will work for me. Mizuno suggested that I try the Wave Paradox. Anybody ever ran in them?

Any suggestions on what I should do about my shoe problem?

Do you run in several different types of shoes or do you stick to one?

I usually run in one type of shoe and that is it so I am not one to rotate from style of shoe to another. 

Let's Talk Shoes

Happy Hump Day! (That word gives me visuals of other things...sorry!) I don't know about the rest of you but I only have one pair of running shoes! I have seen some blog posts where runners have multiple pairs of shoes in their rotation at any given time. I am thinking that I should try that but when I look at the cost of my shoes I am not sure if I want to do that.

It took me some time to find the perfect pair of shoes and I am probably not quite done yet. I went from Nike's to Mizuno's and so far so good. I have heard great things about other shoes and I really want to try the Brooks Ghost out before I make the final decision to stick with my Mizunos. I tried the Ghost's on at an expo and they were so comfortable but I know that the true test is running in them.

I usually retire my shoes around the 400 mile mark so it was time to say goodbye to my old Wave Inspires and hello to my new ones. I broke them in on a 7 mile run on the treadmill last night.

 

Questions

1. How many pairs of running shoes do you have in your rotation any any given time?

2. What is the rule(s) for breaking in a new pair of shoes? Do the same rules still apply if your new shoes are the same brand, style, etc as the ones you are retiring?

3. How many miles do put on your shoes before you retire them?

4.  Any opinions on the Brooks Ghosts?

Some Things Go As Planned and Some Just Don't!

So much for being all excited about refinancing last week. Everything was set to go and I had an appointment for the Notary to come to my house on Friday at 4:00 p.m. to sign all of the paperwork and then I get a call at 1:30 p.m. It was not good news. I have to postpone the closing until mid November due to some weird FHA rules that would end up costing me an extra month of interest charges from my current lender. Apparently, the lender must collect 30 days worth of interest and my title would not record until November 2nd which throws me into another month.

I had the choice to pay the additional $1500 of interest charges to close right away or I could hold postpone it until mid November and avoid paying the additional money. No brainer, right? So now I have to make my November payment and the new closing date will be in mid-November. I will end up not having to make a mortgage payment in December versus November so it is going to come out about the same. I also have to take the cashier's check back to the bank since the closing costs will not be the same amount next month. I feel like I wasted a big part of my Friday but life could be worse! On a positive note, my new monthly payment is going to be $468 lower which is much better than I thought. I was thinking I would save around $300-325 a month so that is BIG plus. All I know is that I will so glad when this all said and done!

The remainder of my Friday was spent running errands, bathing dogs, doing laundry and eating my favorite salad BBQ Chicken Salad from CPK.  I bought a full size salad to eat for lunch and dinner! I think I earned it after stressing myself out on over this whole refinancing dilemma. This salad is my favorite and I also love the fat free balsamic vinagrette dressing.

I also planned on running on this morning and I was hoping to get at least 6 miles in since I had only put in 2 miles earlier in the week. I have also been thinking about changing back to Mizunos. As much as I love my Nike's I am wondering if they are part of my problem. They just don't feel as comfortable anymore so I ended up buying another pair of Mizunos. I have ran in Mizunos before so they are not new to my feet but I didn't want to put too many miles on them for the initial run. 

My run did go as planned! I ran 6.30 miles in my Mizunos at a 9:30 pace. It was slower than I would have wanted it to be but that was the comfortable pace. My feet felt much better in the Mizunos so I might switch back to them for a while. Slower paced runs are going to have to work for now because the shin pain is still there.  I think it's better but it's definitely a problem and affects my ability to run the pace and distance that I would like to.

Today we are going Halloween costume shopping for my son. I am not sure what he is going to dress up as but he always wants some crazy scary costume. I also have to get busy making my costume for work this week. I saw this cute idea on the Internet and I hope that nobody shows up dressed in the same costume!

Do your kids dress up for Halloween? What are they going to be this year? 

My son goes to a private school and they do not allow the students to dress up.  They have a fall festival instead which is more like a carnival with games and food. He does dress up at home and we take him out trick or treating in our neighborhood.

Does your employer celebrate Halloween and encourage you to dress up?

We fund raise for a charity every year and have a lunch with raffles.  They do give away prizes for the best costumes so I am hoping to grab a prize this year!

Three Things Thursday

1. I hope everyone had a great 4th of July.  My family and I had a great time.  We ate a lot of junk good food, set off lots of fireworks and the kids did lots of swimming and had a great time forming a conga line in the jacuzzi!

2.  I went for a 12 mile run to kick off my 4th of July and I think I am loving my new Mizuno Wave Rider 15's! I finally caught a break from the hot weather and I really enjoyed my run. My Wave Rider's are so light, very comfortable and they provide just the right amount of support for my feet. I have only ran in them twice but my past experience with trying new shoes shows that the next day is a good indicator of whether or not they will work for me. I am not in love with the color I bought but I have been looking at the different colors Mizuno offers and now I want another pair!

3. I drive a Prius so unless you drive a clean air vehicle you might not understand why I am loving these parking spaces that are located in a busy shopping center near my house. I just pull right in and don't have to waste any time looking for a parking spot!

These parking spaces are actually closer than the handicapped parking and I do get annoyed when non-clean air vehicles park in "my" spaces! I have also seen special parking spaces designated for expectant moms, which I think is pretty cool too!  Is it weird that I am a runner yet I am excited about getting a parking space that cuts down on my walking??  I feel kind of lazy parking in these spaces but I do it anyway!

How was your 4th of July? Do you drive a clean air vehicle? Do you have any specially designated parking areas like the "Clean Air Vehicle" or "Expectant Mom" spaces where you live?

TGIF and I've Been Shopping Again...

I am so glad it is Friday!  It has been a busy week and I am ready for the weekend!  We don't have big plans for the weekend but I am so looking forward to resting a little more than I have this week.

Next week is going to be a mini vacation for me too because I will only be working Monday and Tuesday and then I am off for the rest of the week!  I am hoping to get a few goods runs in and just relax a little. There are a few things that I want to get done around the house but we will see how I decide to spend my energy.  Most of the time running wins and I put my energy into a good run!


Since the Brooks Pure Flows did not work out for me, I returned them to REI and decided to try out the Mizuno Wave Rider 15's. REI carries them in one color and one color only, which I am not crazy about, but I will live. I will take them for a short run this weekend to see how they feel and if all is well, I will try them out on a longer run. I have an 11 mile run planned for sometime this weekend but don't think that it would be a good idea to try the Mizuno's out on a long run quite yet.

I not only bought new shoes but I also bought a Stick. I do own a foam roller but I have always been kind of curious about the Stick and finally bought one! I think it is a lot easier to use than a foam roller on certain parts of your body so I will be trying this gadget out too. I think I am going to like it for some reason or another.

Do you use the Stick or a foam roller?  What's your opinion of the Stick if you own one?

Three Things Thursday

1. This has been a hectic/stressful week at work. We had inventory this week and everything that could have gone wrong did.  Not to mention, that the warehouse manager is retiring this week so that made things even more chaotic.  I had to learn how to do the inventory in a day which is something that he has been doing for the last 25 plus years.  I am looking forward to the weekend because I need a break. If I am going to be tired, I prefer to be exhausted from running not from working! I'm not planning on going postal or anything like that but I am just more tired than usual this week.

2. I spoke to my Dad on Tuesday and he is due for his scan next Thursday. I always get really nervous when he goes for his scans because I want to hear that the cancer is gone!  The last scan he had six months ago showed that the cancer didn't get better or worse.  This is not bad news but not the news that I wanted to hear. Please keep my Dad in your prayers and pray for a positive outcome.

3.  The Brooks Pureflows did not do it for me!  My calves were really sore after I ran in them and they made for a very uncomfortable run.  They also run small and I had to go a size up and they felt huge on my feet. I am back in my Nike's but my next attempt at new shoes is probably going to be the Mizuno Wave Rider 15's

or the Brooks Glycerin 10. 

 

Do you have a stressful job? 

My job is pretty decent for the most part. I am definitely grateful to have a job but this week was just crazier than usual!