April Race

I did not run in a 5K for April.  I am kind of disappointed that I had to break my goal but I was just not ready to run.  I guess now I will have to run 2 races in 1 month!

Slow start

Since my injury, I have had a hard time getting back into running.  I was supposed to take 4 weeks off from running but I had to do more than that due to pain.  Running the Warrior Dash was great but very risky.  Fortunately I didn't hurt myself any worse, but I still was not able to jump back into running.  I started going out for a mile and a half run once a week for 2 weeks.  Then I increased to 2 miles for 2 weeks.  A couple of weeks ago, I started forcing myself to run 2 or 3 times a week and 2 nights ago, I was able to go 3.1 miles.  It felt so good to be able to run that far.  Some of my runs are good and pain free.  Others are miserable and painful the whole time.  I can tell my leg is getting better but it still hurts.  I have devoted a lot of time to stretching before and after my runs.  I know that helps a ton.  Running makes me feel so good and I wish my injuries would stop slowing me down!

No Sodas for a year!

As of the end of March, I completed my goal of not drinking sodas for a year!  About a month into the year, I stopped having cravings for soda.  The only times I was tempted to give in were when we would take trips to San Antonio and stop at Bucc-ee's.  They have Dr. Pepper slushies and I would crave them so bad!  Other than that, I had no problems.  When we would go out to eat, I would just order tea instead of soda.  Now that my year is up, I have not been interested in drinking soda.  Every time I get one, I can only drink a few sips of it.  Plus, I run better when I don't drink sodas!

March Race

I did it!  I survived the Warrior Dash.  The week before the race, I had made up my mind not to do the run because I was still having pain.  Saturday afternoon I talked to some people who had finished the race that morning and they had a lot of fun and thought I should do it.  Dave ran Saturday evening and after hearing about his race, I decided I would go and just take it slow and have fun.  I ran with a friend from high school and having her next to me for the beginning of the race help to push me through the initial soreness in my leg.  I was going very slow and yet still passing people, so that was encouraging to me.  My goal was to finish in under an hour and my time was 47 minutes.  I lost count of the amount of obstacles on the course but the highlights included climbing a steep mud mountain and then sliding down the opposite side, jumping over fire, climbing through a pitch black tunnel, crawling through a mud pond which had barbed wire in it, swimming in a lake and having to jump over floating logs.  At the end I was completely muddy and exhausted but I am so glad I did the race!  If you want to see pictures, go here and enter in my bib #- 31464.  Dave's bib # is 31463.

The verdict is in!

I finally broke down and went to the doctor.  I tried running again yesterday morning and didn't make it down the street before I had shooting pain again.  I decided to go to an orthopedic surgeon and I am so glad I did.  I was in and out of the office in half an hour with my diagnosis and I am already feeling better.  The doctor took an x-ray, asked some questions, moved some muscles around and concluded that I have a strained abductor muscle.  I am supposed to hold off on running for 2 more weeks, which is not so great, and take anti-inflammatory medicine for the rest of the week.  For some crazy reason I thought Tylenol was anti-inflammatory and so when I first hurt myself, that is what I took.  I took some Advil yesterday and actually noticed considerable pain relief by the end of the day.  If I have not had a noticeable change in pain and ability to run without pain, I will go back to the doctor to get an MRI that will look for a possible stress fracture.  The doctor didn't think I had one, but he couldn't rule it out without an MRI and because of my build, I am more prone to stress fractures.  I am still planning on running the Warrior Dash in March as long as I am feeling better in the next 2 weeks.  I am going stir crazy not being able to run though, especially because of the beautiful weather we are having and the fact that it has been getting much lighter earlier in the morning.  I am definitely going to be adding in a lengthy warm up to my running routine.  I may even consider some yoga to help with it, but I find yoga hard to do because I don't have the patients for it!

Another week off

I am having to take another week off from running.  My muscle is still giving me problems.  I thought it was better and so Tuesday I went out for a run but as soon as I started, I had to stop due to shooting pain.  I did some research online to see what was going on (anything to avoid the doctor!) and I found some helpful stretches and exercises that will hopefully take care of the muscle.  Most of the research I did said it would take about 2-3 weeks to heal.  If I am not feeling better by then I will go have it checked out by a doctor.   

Mixed Emotion

On Saturday I strained a muscle in my leg so I am taking the week off from running to let it heal.  I am so disappointed I can't run this week because the weather is absolutely perfect for running!
I have been planning next months race for a couple of weeks now.  There is a race in March that is a muddy obstacle course that I have been looking at since January, but it wasn't something I wanted to do by myself.  One day on facebook I noticed some highschool friends talking about doing the race and I commented to them that I would be very interested in doing it with them.  Today I was able to register for the race and I am so excited about it!  I will probably be switching up my training a bit for the next month to be able to complete the race.  Can't wait!