Great Santa Chase 5k

Last night I ran the 2nd annual Great Santa Chase. I ran the 1st annual last year - my first 5k race for time. This race takes place at Lights of the South, it's a place right near my house where you can take a hayride through christmas light displays. Except last night we were running through them!

This is the infamous castle. It's the finish point of the race. This year instead of looping the trail 3 times they had us go off into the parking lot for part of it. Which I'm actually thankful for and I'll explain why in a minute.

My goal for this year was to finish in under 30 minutes. Since my return to running 2 months ago I've been averaging around 10 minutes a mile, but I have not been doing speedwork at this point. It's really just been about getting back into it. Last year's time was 36:51 - it was a run filled with many walk breaks and water stops. So this year I was curious to see how much I've improved, even after 6 months off

There was a 1 mile fun run for the kids which was cute to watch. They had to try and catch Santa, but he was in a golf car so it wasn't exactly an easy task. 

Then our run began at sundown. I did a good job of pacing myself, and I did not stop to walk for even one second which is pretty awesome. But holy hell... the gravel!!! Yes, this is a gravel trail. Last year it wasn't a huge deal because I had my old shoes - minimal, but not completely barefoot. Well my trail shoes now are baaarrre-foot!!! There really isn't much protecting me from the huge rocks. It hurt like hell. And I think it definitely affected my speed. But I just did my best to grin and bare it. The run through the dirt parking lot was definitely welcome, even if I didn't get to look at any pretty lights during that part. Running through the lights was really fun and the weather was damn near perfect for shorts and a shortsleeve shirt. My finish time was 30:18, did not quite make my goal but that's ok because I beat the pants off of my previous time! I think that despite the gravel I did my best and paced myself really well to avoid burning out early. 

Me after the run, and the fire pit which kept me warm - by the time I finished it was a bit chilly!

Unfortunately my husband had to work so it was just me all by my lonesome, but I am thankful for the ability to be out there racing, even if I am by myself.

They had some pretty tasty free baked goods which were provided by a local bakery. I had a tiny piece of each - cinnamon bagel, some type of frosted scone, and sourdough bread

I'm not sure if I like my trail shoes, after my last 3 trail runs all of which involved gravel at some point during the race. Gravel freaking hurts in barefoot shoes. I'm not new to barefoot running, I just don't run on anything besides woodland trails and asphalt. Not sure if I want to tough it out and condition my feet for rough terrain, or just go for a more cushioned yet still minimal trail shoe. I guess I'll keep running in them for now and make a decision after I've had more time in them

Next saturday's run will be 3.5, as I slowly begin to build mileage for the Augusta Half in february!

The good side of weird schedules

My husband went back to work today for the first time since his foot surgery. He works a late afternoon/night shift and we don't really get weekends together. So for about 5 days, the only time we will see each other is when one of us is asleep. Sucks for me cause I feel like I never get to see him, but there are benefits to it. See, on nights when he is home I just want to hang out with him... which sometimes leads to rushing through my exercise time and not doing chores as often as I should. At least this way I can get more stuff done around the house and not feel like I have to rush through my workouts.

So tonight I did my strength training and had a date with my foam roller. I had a bunch of energy because we had a Thanksgiving lunch at work... carbs, yay!

Lately I've had a bit of heel pain in my left foot. I think maybe I've been favoring my left foot a bit during these several months of dealing with hip pain on my right side. Took a break from running for a week to see if it would do anything. It didn't really help initially, but the last 2 days have been a little better even though I ran yesterday. I'm not that worried about it. This week I realized I'm always going to have little nagging aches and pains. As long as they never become anything more than that, why let them stop me? These days I am stretching, massaging, icing, and foam rolling everything to minimize any possible issues. The truth is, if I stop everything each time I get aches and pains, then I'm never going to get anything done. Would I rather go back to my life of inactivity and never accomplish any challenges or have any cool stories to tell? Hell no! I'd rather do something awesome and be in pain sometimes than not even use the body I was given. 

So yes, I'm just going to take care of this as best I can and hope it doesn't turn into something serious like PF


This weekend I'm doing the Great Santa Chase 5k. It's here near my house at Lights of the South, a big Christmas light display here in East GA. They did this for the first time last year and it was my first REAL 5k where I ran for time. That time was 36:51, which I will surely beat the pants off this year. Will I meet my PR of 27:17? Probably not - since my return to running I've been averaging around 10min/mile. So I'll try to get a sub 30 minute run here.


Oh, one more thing. I found this and it's pretty great. Perfectly describes a hypoglycemic runner like myself...

10 Things HANGRY People Do  !!

Nip it in the bud

Grrrr.

I've been noticing some heel pain lately - the past 2 weeks or so, usually hurting the most the day after I run. Today I realized that it keeps coming back and that I really should do something about it before it gets any worse. Talked it over with my husband and his opinion is that it's a heel bruise. He's had alot of experience with foot pains and running injuries so I have a fair amount of trust in his theory. Google seems to support it. I don't think it's plantar because the pain doesn't extend into my arch, it's really just on the ball of my heel. It hurts when I put my foot down or stand on it but not when the tendon of my arch is in motion. The pain isn't really that bad. It would seem I just need to rest/ice/elevate for a few days until the pain subsides. So until I feel like the pain is better I'm going to hold off on running for awhile. I'd rather do that than have it develop into something worse.

Sucks that I'm dealing with another injury now. But at this point it's pretty early in the game so I'm trying to remain optimistic that this will be something that heals within a week or so. I probably just hit something wrong. I don't heel strike but maybe I accidentally did while running down a hill, because hills are everywhere in east Georgia

The plan is going to be to strength train in place of running for the time being

Good news, weighed in at 160 this morning! It will probably fluctuate a bit but at least it's not the same freakin number as day one :)

162

So I've been gradually increasing my activity over the past few weeks and it's been pretty successful. I'm running anywhere from 5-8 miles a week, practicing yoga again, and now I'm back to strength training too. Still working on my tight right hip - but I'm no longer in constant pain and it doesn't hurt to do everyday things like pushing a shopping cart or vacuuming. Progress is good.

And now that we're through with all the birthdays and halloweens, I'm officially on a quest to lose some weight. Unfortunately I've put on about 1 pound per month of inactivity (so that's 6 pounds) but now that I'm active again it's time to lose all that!

Starting weight - 162

Goal weight - 155. Then we'll see where I go from there

I think my BMI is still normal for 5'8" but I haven't measured it yet

Here's what's gonna happen...

• Tracking calories daily
• Exercise 5-6 days a week
• Making myself meet a deadline - weigh ins on wednesdays

I allow myself some exceptions on weekends but other than that I'll be sticking to this pretty tight. If I don't then it's never gonna happen

Weight loss isn't fun... sometimes it feels like I'm starving and I start craving everything in sight. But it should only be for a few weeks. After that I can eat for maintenance, just as long as I stay active, which I have every intention of doing

The Spartan Workout

Ok. I ate entirely too much halloween candy. Man I love sugar way too much!

Ran 5k yesterday morning at the creek. We had a ton of rain the night before so there were wet leaves plastered all over the trail. Part of the trail is on a long wooden bridge. Wet leaves on wood = very bad. Had to slow down to avoid slipping. The run took me about 32 minutes. Now that I've been running regularly for about a month I'm going to start challenging myself to do better each time. Increased speed, intervals, and limiting walk breaks. The stupid abdominal cramp still shows up but it's getting better. I can run through it most days.

Now it's sunday and I just finished my yoga. Something about right angle pose absolutely kills my right hip. I'm trying my best to hold these poses as long as possible in order to get the maximum benefit from the stretches. No pain at the moment!

Tomorrow will be a strength training session

Some cool news - I signed up for the Spartan Workout! Not sure what that is? It's a 2 hour long workout put on by the founders of Spartan Race. Here is a snippet taken from the website

The Spartan Race Fitness Team is focused on BUILDING BETTER HUMANS by developing:

• Stamina - the ability to endure
• Power - strength and speed
• Athleticism - complete integrated functional fitness, using the body in a way that it was intended to move
• Readiness - take on any challenge, any time!
• Tenacity - mental
• Attitude - a positive disposition even in the face of adversity

Sounds pretty awesome. It's completely free AND you get a free shirt! Mine is on 12/7 and it's in Macon which is about 2 hours away. Funny thing is, I am actually going to TRAIN for this. Think about that for a second. I am going to train for one single workout. But - it's 2 hours and it's Spartan. I'll be doing stuff I have probably never done before. So I need to make sure I ramp up my training over the next month so I don't die during this beast of a workout.

Is it really working???

I almost feel hesitant to post this. Because I feel like for the past 6 months, every time I started to notice an improvement in my symptoms the pain would always come back with a vengeance and prove me wrong.

However, I feel like (and hope) that this is different.

I've been working on hip openers and stretches with my husband. He's great at this stuff. In another life he could have been a yoga master. I've noticed improvement during the last 2 weeks, but what really seems to have helped almost instantly was the yoga I did on sunday.

This is the same yoga video I did for 3 months prior to the onset of all the pain. I attempted to keep doing it, but I would always get to certain stretches that made it hurt. At the time I had no idea what I was dealing with. The pain seemed to be in my lower back, so I was thinking I probably had a back problem that could potentially be serious. So I thought pain = bad, and any time I got myself into a pose that hurt I just flat out didn't do it. After awhile I gave up yoga and all other activity completely.

But on sunday I decided to just do the whole thing and see what happened. I pushed myself through the painful poses. The triangles, right angles, warrior 3's, standing splits, and half moons. All the warrior poses gave me some grief. I was sore for about an hour afterward, then all of a sudden - no pain. I haven't had any pain since then aside from some brief morning soreness. Not even any tightness when I stick my right hip out and bend to the left - a move that always felt tight and painful.

Tonight I went for a 2 mile run and it was really good. No tightness or pain in my hip like there has always been. My abdominal cramp was there, but instead of a sharp run-stopping pain it was more like a constant ache, something I could at least run through. We did more stretching afterward which left me a little sore, but now there's not really any pain to report.

I'm going to keep doing all of this religiously and hope this really is my ticket to recovery

Zombie 5k

I have run another race!

Yesterday I did the Zombie 5k on Fort Gordon! I did this race last year, and it was my first "official" 5k ever - but I don't really count it as my first real race (I'll explain why in a minute) Last year I ran this race at the beginning of my weight loss quest. I weighed somewhere around 190 lbs. Here's me from last year's race... not really sure why I'm in front of the bathrooms, but there ya go

This is me before running yesterday's race, almost exactly one year later

It's amazing what a difference 35 lbs will make


This is a different kind of race. It's on some pretty sandy and hilly trails through the woods. Obviously there are zombies who chase you. You're given 3 flags on a belt (like flag football) and if you lose all 3 you die. One zombie can only take one flag, so it's not like you can lose all 3 at the same time. But it's pretty hard. Last year hardly anyone survived. I was signed up for the 4th wave of this year's race, and at the starting line they had told us that only 1 person had survived so far. And my wave was only 10 people. Yeah, we're gonna die...lol.

So I started the race at the front with a couple that looked pretty fit and fast. I never saw the people who were behind me. It was pretty much just me and this couple, and eventually we met up with another guy who was waiting for people to team up with. Basically if you're by yourself you die. This race is not about time - it's about survival. Because even if you're fast and finish first it doesn't count unless you have at least 1 flag left. The whole race was pretty much sprinting when there were zombies and then walking or maybe light jogging the rest of the way. Some of the zombies didn't really try to get you, but others were fast and relentless. Mainly the 20-something's Army guys. I lost 1 flag early to a really fast one. About midway through the course we saw some zombies ahead, and a guy off to the far far right just standing there. He was really far away and didn't look like he was going to make an attempt to get us. He waved at me. I waved back. Then the zombies ahead of us came and we were running. All of a sudden, *fwoop!* The waving zombie had snuck up on my left side and grabbed my flag. That was one hell of a sneaky zombie, I didn't even hear him coming! And I realized I really made myself a target by waving at him. Oh well. Flag #2 was lost. Not long after we entered this area

(This photo was taken by Fort Gordon Boss)

This was the start of what would be a never ending huge field of zombies. Somehow I made it through here with my last flag but I had to go way off the course into the grass. I felt like I was sprinting full speed for 1-2 minutes, which I'm not really used to doing these days. Not long after the huge zombie field I lost my third flag. The zombie was on my left side and the flag was on my right, but somehow even after dodging out of the way he was able to grab it. He had a super arm or something. So from this point on I acted as bait for the rest of my group so they could survive. It was semi effective but after hordes of really fast and relentless zombies the others ended up losing their flags too. Then towards the end of the race some volunteers rode by us on an ATV and tosses us some flags. I guess they felt bad because nobody was surviving! But we made it past the last few zombies and approached the finish line

I sort-of survived! I got a medal!

 2nd place for females 20-29 :)

I think I finished around 40 minutes, not a good time by any means but I was going at the pace of my survival group

Once again I had a great time doing this race. I hope they keep doing it, because I think it's turning into a tradition for me

After the race we met up with one of my husband's Army friends and we went to Jersey Mike's subs. Chipotle Cheesesteak... mmmhhmm. Then we made an impromptu decision to run by Walmart and grab some halloween decorations. We went back on base and decorated our trucks and ourselves for the battalion Trunk or Treat. I gave myself some face wound tattoos. Not bad for about 30 minutes of planning inside a Walmart

Even though we don't have kids we both had a really good time at the trunk or treat. Plus it was good to see some of my husband's friends and help support his battalion. He made an improvised costume too and actually ended up winning a prize - candy plus a sweet parking pass - which he can make great use of once he gets back to work (he had foot surgery recently) 

Today I'm going to do some yoga to stretch everything out after yesterday. I'm quite sore as my body is not really used to sprinting for long periods of time. But no hip or back pain to report :)