So much for NaBloPoMo, right? 16 days in a row was a pretty good stretch, though. Fran asked me on twitter over Thanksgiving if I was going to finish the month, and we started talking about how few of the people that were actively blogging back in ’05-06 are still at it. He said (paraphrasing) that he’s dropped off because it’s hard to find new things to say.
And that’s exactly why I find it so hard to blog. I started running in 1994, when I was 15 and a freshman in high school. I ran my first 5k that year, my first 10k in 1995. I started doing “long runs” (10-12 miles) in 1996. In between road races, cross country and track, I ran races probably 35-40 weeks a year in high school. I ran my first 1/2 and my first marathon in 2001. I made my first BQ attempt in 2004, and came up short with my first big injury. I ran sub-4 in 2005, and hit my BQ in 2006 after jumping up to a 50 mpw program. I’ve run while pregnant twice, and have had to try and bounce back from pregnancy/postpartum mess twice.
A lot of the active bloggers out there now are at the start of their running careers. I love reading my archives from ’04-06, but I’m not likely to have that kind of free time for a long time nor can I recapture that enthusiasm that came with going after those goals. Right now, the goal is to get back to that level of fitness. Maybe when that happens and I’m going after new ground I’ll feel like I’m not just rehashing my old posts.
Lest that be taken the wrong way, I’m not unhappy with my running nor do I feel that it won’t be an accomplishment when I actually do run another marathon. Fitting training time in with 2 kids will certainly be more of an accomplishment than it was to train with no kids and less work stress. It’s just that, time constraints aside, I’m not finding much new to write about with my training.
Other complicating factor is one I’m sure other parents struggle with – how much of your kids do you put out there? I wrote somewhere on here once that I don’t blog about my husband much (or use his name) because if he wanted to be in a blog, he would have his own. I ran a race after my oldest was born and included a picture of her in the race report. Someone reposted my post, including the picture, on their site. It was meant to be “honoring” me, but I was so uncomfortable with it and asked for the picture to be taken off. The blogger reminded me that anything on the Internet is fair game. True, but I think that’s the last time I posted a kid picture on here. I now post pictures occasionally on twitter, but I have a hard time with blogging about them.
So where does this leave the blog? I’m not ready to completely abandon it. I like having a space to occasionally write about running without a 140 character limit. I need to try to be better about writing occasional updates, because its useful to me since I’ve basically abandoned my written training log in favor of data-only computer-based logs. The other reason I can’t completely stop is that I still wonder about some of the defunct bloggers, and I figure of I wonder about people than maybe people wonder about me. Sounds a little self centered? I changed a setting on google reader the other day and it was just astounding how many blogs I have in there that haven’t updated in forever.
So watch this space for sporadic updates, and if you want more frequent updates you can follow me in twitter or daily mile.
In the meantime, if you are following me on either site, you know I’ve been injured since Thanksgiving. Taking a quick look at my last 3 posts here, not really a surprise. My hip was occasionally achy the week of Thanksgiving, enough to be not “right” but not enough to interfere with running. I wanted to run a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving, but the Engineer pointed out how going to a race would mean being gone for probably 3 hours and not very polite when staying at someone else’s house. So I decided I would just do my own 5k in my BIL’s neighborhood. It was pretty great, I ran 23:58 (iirc) and probably could’ve run faster if I’d not been running alone. Not bad at all for no taper! However, my hip was off while racing and HURT once I stopped. I kind of hobbled my way back to BIL’s house and iced it. It ached all day, and at one point DD1 used my hip to push up off the couch and I nearly screamed. I couldn’t even sleep on that side, it hurt so much. It wasn’t as bad the not day, but still nowhere near good. Dr Google suggested bursitis, which can be alleviated with rest.
So I decided to be smart (for once) and take time off. I didn’t run for 9 days and my hip started feeling fine. So I tried to run on 12/2. Got around the corner and felt a little off but thought it was just stiffness. Got down the street a little more and started to think it might be a bad idea. I turned around and was immediately met with an “oh shit that hurts” feeling. Got home, got on the elliptical and lifted weights for the first time in 2 years, and called sports med the next day.
This is getting too long. 12/5 they amazingly had an opening & I got in for x-rays and to see doc (same one I saw in ’06). No fractures, no identifiable issues other than soft muscle tissue. Said to keep crosstraining and got an appt for Runners Clinic PT on 12/19.
Kept using elliptical and doing upper body/core weights. Hip felt good, so decided to try running in 12/17. Decided to do treadmill so I could easily stop if there were issues. Felt great, until 0.8 mi when it started to feel “off” again. So I called it a day at 1 mile.
Runners Clinic is a newer thing the PT dept does. We postponed filming me running on a treadmill since I’d just aggravated my leg and they want to see my real form, not injured and compensating. But got checked for leg length issues, flexibility, strength, and talked about what I wanted to accomplish. Brought my shoes in and was told they were a good choice and got a thumbs up for replacing at 250-300 miles.
I now have a strength and stretch routine to follow – need to work on core and hip area. Found out that the stretch I’ve been using for IT band is not that great bc it puts too much weight on my hip. So the stretch I’ve been doing to try to help probably was helping hurt.
I have my recheck with doc tomorrow and we’re going to try the video next week. No running until then. Have to say, being forced to stay inside and crosstrain isn’t too much of a hardship when the windchill is below 0.
