Category: Geek Girl Runner

Trail Note
I actually got out of bed at 6:30 this morning and went running. I KNOW! Threw the whole family’s schedule out-of-whack. The cat was like, “Whuuuut?” I ran the same route as Sunday, hoping to improve on my time a bit. I really need to get a stopwatch; I just rely on my iPod to tell me how long I’ve been gone. I could tell I was definitely going faster though. I remember that “Pump Up the Jam” (thanks, Max!) kicked in around the Fish Markets last time, whereas today I was quite a bit farther along Pyrmont Bridge Road. I could almost see the ghost of myself a couple hundred yards back and I was trying to concentrate on beating her to Glebe. Unfortunately running on one day’s rest is a lot harder than running on three days’ rest for me, and by the time I got up the hill to Glebe Point Road I had a burning stitch in my side. I had to walk a couple blocks to get my breath back. I finished fairly strong though and I think I ended up cutting two or three minutes off my time in the end. I’ll see that as a big win though, considering how much pain I was in and how much heavier the traffic was on a weekday (meaning I couldn’t blow through a lot of the lights). My ankle’s a little sore now though… I think I need some new running shoes. These are over a year old!

Trail Note
Did I mention that I’m running again? Well, I am. Lately I’ve just been taking off after work – I loooove daylight savings – and heading in a different direction. I’ve been through the uni and up through Newtown to St. Peters and back; down Cleveland Street as far as Moore Park and back; and this morning I zig-zagged my way through Ultimo to Darling Harbour. It was a GORGEOUS day to be out. I passed a group of old Asian ladies doing Tai Chi near the Exhibition Centre and debated on joining them. I saw vendors setting up stalls for the Thai food festival later this arvo. I chugged past tourists on Pyrmont Bridge trying to capture the perfect city skyline shot. Mostly I just marvelled at how magnificent Sydney can be on a summer day… And of course I sweated. I sweated a lot. (Thanks, hypnotist.)

DietBlog: At last, the 87-kilo glass floor has been shattered! After weeks of bouncing between 87 and 88, I’ve finally dropped to 86.6. We are closing in on fifteen kilos’ loss, kids!

And to what do I attribute this progress? Merely the fact that I’ve literally been exercising my ass off lately. Last week I worked out six days in a row. SIX! That’s more than I’ve done since high school. I’ve been mixing it up too – boxing, squash, yoga, running, walking. I wasn’t sure I was going to get the loss in the end, since my daily weigh-ins have all been a little higher (and I drank a lot of beer on the weekend). I’ve also been ravenous with all this new energy expenditure. I think my metabolism has finally kicked into gear though, and hopefully it’s gonna stay this way. Eighty-five, here I come!

I went running in the park this morning for the first time in two weeks. It was a little later than my last run – more like 8:30 than 6:30 – and consequently it wasn’t so chilly out. I still had some slight sniffliness, but not anything near as bad as I had last time. I did wipe my nose on my sleeve though. Just so you know.

Running Meme
Oh god. I was worried this would happen. I’ve been tagged!

Q: What are you training for now?
A: Nothing in particular. To help my WW progress, I guess. Running is hard so I feel like I’m getting more benefits than other kinds of exercise.

Q: If you are raising money for a cause, what is it and why is that cause important to you?
A: I wish I could say I was, but I’m not. It’s the purely superficial “Get Kris into a size 14 bikini by summer” cause.

Q: What is the furthest distance you’ve run in your training and what is the furthest distance you will run before your event?
A: In the past two weeks? My furthest is four big laps around Victoria Park. Not much, I know, but I can already feel an improvement. Each time I feel like I can go a little further before walking. I’d like to get back up to doing 5K non-stop.

Q: What is your favorite flavor of gu? (or other sports gel)
A: Huh? That’s a little futuristic for me. My half hour shuffles around the park don’t require astronaut food… yet.

Q: How many days a week do you run?
A: My current goal is twice a week, which I’m meeting. It’s hard though, since it’s chilly in the mornings and dark by the time I get home from work. I can’t wait for Daylight Savings so I can run in the evenings.

Q: Are you injured in any way right now? If so, what are you doing about it?
A: Other than the cold (which kept me home sick today), I’m actually in pretty good shape, I think. I’m trying to prevent the tendonitis and back pain that marred my previous running attempts so I’m continuing my weekly yoga class. My route around the park includes a section on the grass, and I plan to travel further afield once my fitness levels improve.

Q: What is one item of running clothing/gear (shoes don’t count) you can’t run without?
A: Lately it seems to be a handkerchief!

Q: Do you have a talisman you are planning on taking to your event? If so, tell us!
A: The Snook is my talisman. 🙂

Q: Share one thing about yourself we don’t know.
A: I actually did run track in middle school. I sucked at it, but our competitions were so small that I still managed to score a couple ribbons. Long jump was my favorite. (Who doesn’t like playing in the sand?)

Hmm, who should do this next? Probably Eileen, though she doesn’t have a blog. (Write your answers in the comments, RT!)

Guess what I did this morning? I went running. RUNNING! For the first time since my tendonitis incident during the Nike Women’s Classic last year. I did 25 minutes of jogging/walking around Victoria Park, making sure I ran on both the sidewalks and the grass to give my legs some variety. My ass feels sore already and my face is nuclear red, but I feel pretty good!

Done any good deeds lately?
Remember how my sister ran the Honolulu Marathon last year? It turns out that Katie Krawcyzk, a good friend of my cousin Jenny (who you’ll recognize as a frequent commenter here), is running it this year to raise money for AIDS services. She’s got another reason though: she’s doing it to get her Dad to quit smoking. I really liked this bit from her training page:

I have chosen to run a marathon to show him that overcoming most of life’s hardest battles (such as quitting smoking) is an issue of determination and mind over matter – you can achieve anything, no matter how much you may resist, or how much you struggle to get through it. Even if you never wanted to do such a feat for yourself in the first place, you do it for those you love because they want you to, and they need you to; you do it to make yourself healthy so you can make the most of the one life you’re given. Through this marathon, we raise money for those living with AIDS in order to prolong their lives as much as possible until we find a cure. For me, I am not only hoping to help save their lives, but I’m also hoping to save one more.

That’s awesome. Please consider donating a few bucks if you have any to spare. (And Dad, are you listening? Say the word and I’ll start training.)

So… A subluxated cuboid bone. That’s what the physiotherapist thinks I have. It certainly fits the symptoms. We ruled out the whole “plantar fasciitis” because my pain is on the outside of my foot, not the arch. I had a couple X-rays this afternoon to hopefully rule out a stress fracture. (There’s something unsettling about a medical procedure so dangerous that the technician has to stand outside the room while it’s performed.) In the meantime, I’m to keep it iced and lay off the running. The physio also showed me how to tape it up, while seems to help a little bit. I guess it’s back to weight training for the time being!

Running Update
You may have noticed a considerable hole in my training schedule. Basically, the pain in my left foot I experienced after my last run (and the one previous) got worse and worse over several days. I’m fairly certain it’s from the way I “pronate” (i.e. roll) my foot to the outside. I could barely stand to walk on it. I spoke to the doctor about it and she gave me an X-ray referral to check if I have a stress fracture. I haven’t used it yet. The pain is gone and the race is in a week. There just isn’t time. I did a short run on it today and it’s feeling all right. I know I need rest and new shoes, and I figure I can get both of those after the race. And if it hurts after the 10K… I’ll get the X-ray. I promise. I just don’t want to miss the race. I’m planning to take it nice and easy. My goal at this point is just to finish.

New Running Personal Best – 8 kilometers! (That’s 5 miles for you non-metric folks.) Actually I did it once before but I injured myself in the process. I’m feeling pretty good right now. My feet and ankles are sore again, but I’m starting to think it’s just my body adapting to the stress of longer distances*. The really interesting bit is that my pace (12:00/mile) is remaining consistent despite running farther. I’ve set a baseline goal of 80 minutes for the 10K but if I maintain my current pace I should be able to do it in 75. And of course, I’m counting on race day adrenaline to cut it even further. I just might pull this off!

Note: I fully realize that me saying “longer distances” is probably laughable to you guys that run marathons. But take pity on the curvy girls… Five miles is a long way!