Shoe surgery and other stuff

Before I get into performing surgery on my lovely sneaks, let me just say happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm feeling thankful the family is healthy (and that I'm injury free)!

I'm excited to run my turkey trot, mostly because my parents will be running, and it's just a great way to start the day. Does anyone else think that turkey trots are becoming a Thanksgiving tradition (almost like watching football)? Given that there are almost 1,000 people signed up for this race that was approximately 400 people a few years ago...I'm thinking turkey trots are becoming a tradition...


Moving on to shoe surgery. I bought these Saucony Kinvaras about a month before my marathon in October. I'm not going to do a shoe review, but if you like to read well written shoe reviews I would suggest runblogger. He loves shoes and consequently writes excellent reviews.

Anyway, I bought the Kinvaras, and absolutely loved them. Like the best running shoe ever. They just feel right. Unfortunately, after a measly 150 miles (three weeks), the left shoe started giving me a blister on my heel. When I got in there and checked things out, I noticed a piece of plastic was poking into my heel. I was furious! 150 miles, seriously that's ridiculous. I had to go back to my Nike frees for the marathon. A few weeks later, I dusted off the Kinvaras and figured I might as well try to fix them. I couldn't run in them as they were anyway. So I went at that left shoe with a pair of sharp scissors and didn't stop until I had cut out approximately one half inch of plastic. Then Macgyver style, I duct taped that bad boy. I've been running in them for three weeks now and they seem fine.


Now for a couple random notes. Here's a picture of some of my runner buddies at work. Every year we do a really easy run together before Thanksgiving. Then we eat pie. Personally, I enjoy the run more than the pie. The slice pecan I ate just gave me an upset stomach. Anyway, they're a fun bunch. There's a guy in there who's a three time Ironman. Three others who have run in the 3:20 range for the marathon. I'm the only one in long pants. It was only 45 ish degrees and we ran slow, so I'm sticking with my pants decision.

And for my last random note...on Saturday I did a two mile time trial in 12:00. I hope everyone has an awesome Thanksgiving!

Lisa's Lung Cancer Awareness 5K Race Report

I don't really have a race report for last weekend's 5K. I raced it unexpectedly, and the result was unexpected too. Everything is a bit blurry now, and I don't remember much.

I do remember that the first mile felt much harder than I anticipated. The plan was to run a 6:15 first mile and then hang on for dear life. Before the horn sounded, I assumed that I'd have to hold back to make sure I didn't run too fast, but when the race started and I settled down, I looked down at my Garmin to find that I needed to speed up. Mile 1 wound up being 6:16, but I had to work for it.

From there, I just kept telling myself to run harder. I crossed mile 2 at 12:40. Then my lungs started to feel as though they might burst from my chest, but I knew if I hung on I would break 20. This is where racing gets hard for me. In high school and college, I ran for a team, and the team was what motivated me to hang in there when things got uncomfortable. Now there's just me, and I don't care as much. Well, I care afterward, but during...not so much. Anyway, I did hang in there and it was a good day. I did wheeze for several days though. My asthma has been a little annoying lately. Below you can a scary race picture of me finishing.

There's not much else to report for the week. Today I ran 10 x 400 meters at 1:23, which is a good workout for me. I'm planning on running another 5K on Thanksgiving. I also have two halfs planned. One in February and one in March.

Is anyone else running a turkey trot? What's your favorite turkey trot distance? Right now, mine is the 5K, but lately I've been contemplating a 10K.

19:36 :)

This will have to be short, but I did decide to go ahead and run that 5k today (and my official time was 19:36). I'm glad that I ran. I know the turkey trot course is .1 long, which will make it harder to break 20.

To be honest, I didn't want to run. It was right in the middle of the day, we had lots of chores to do, and everyone is still recovering. But Thursday I did another mile time trial. This time I clocked 5:43, which made me think that I should put in the effort to race.

Again, I'm happy that I did. Overall, I ran a smart race. My first mile was 6:16, and from there I just did my best to hang on. I was the first female finisher, which was cool (although it really just points out that the race wasn't very competitive).

The only downside is that my asthma has been acting up since the race, but that's okay. I haven't run that fast in almost a decade...

I hope everyone else had a good running weekend too!

One good workout to go with one horrific week

Saturday morning before the snow started (last week), I ran 10 x 400 meters all in 1:26 with one minute jogs between intervals. It was a good workout for me, and I was glad to get in before we lost power that night.

We lost power for three days, which was actually less time than many others in our area. We stayed in the house for two nights, but I opted to take the kids to my parents the third night. (Thank you mom and dad!) It was just getting cold (48 degrees). Losing power in general isn't that big a deal, but we lost all the food in the fridge and came home to find ice cream had melted through the freezer onto the floor and under the fridge. Also, power was out everywhere. That means no gas was available and no stores were open. That was probably the scariest part. Seeing all the stores and gas stations dark.

Power came back and the next morning Kaylee started vomiting. She couldn't keep any fluids down. I called the doctor's office and brought her in. They thought she looked fine and sent us home. I called back a few hours later and they agreed we should take her to the ER. This was stressful for me. Nick stayed with Emily, and I took Kaylee into Boston. We waited over four hours to see a doctor. I was soaked in vomit. Kaylee was exhausted. They gave her an anti nausea drug and IV fluids. Her blood work indicated that she was bad enough to admit to the hospital.

They let us go home the next afternoon, just in time for Emily to have a bad case of croup for the night. The next morning I took her to the doctor's office and she was given a steroid shot.

Everyone in the house is sick and grouchy, but we're doing fine. Hopefully the kids will start feeling better soon. I could write more, but don't have time (and it would probably just sound like whining anyway). It was a crazy week. I'm feeling drained and looking forward to getting back into a routine. I had been planning on running a 5K this past Sunday, but for obvious reasons I was unable to do so. There's another 5K that I might try to run this weekend. We'll see.

How was your week? I hope it was better than mine. ;)