Not quite a long run

As I’m writing this, my left knee is propped up smothered in ice and I just took my fifth Tylenol of the day and it isn’t even noon yet.

Let’s backtrack: yesterday I had 22 slow miles slated with Marissa, who is also running the NJ Marathon. We met up at Columbus Circle ready to tackle two loops of Central Park then an out and back in Riverside Park. During our looped run I was a bit tight, but ok. Nothing too painful and we kept up a decent slow pace as we talked about work, food, NYC, and the like. It was a productive run.

We walked over to the Riverside Park entrance at 58th since running wasn’t going to happen with all of the tourists. As soon as we started back up again I felt like my left knee was being stabbed. I stretched a bit and hobbled on. Every step got a bit worse and my shuffled slowed immensely. After about 3 miles I had to stop. I felt awful, but it was agonizing. Marissa took the rest of the course like a champ whereas I struggled to even walk. I felt like throwing up from the pain. Thankfully I had my metrocard with me and was able to grab a cross town bus after attempting to walk a few blocks. The pain hadn’t been this bad before, each step was a battle. At least I got 16.5 miles in…

Other than my knee I felt perfect. We took it easy, I had energy, my breathing was effortless, mentally I could have gone on for many more miles, and surprisingly I didn’t wake up sore. I iced when I got home and called my physician to see if anyone could see me as a walk in. After much stretching and prodding and poking and bending, the diagnosis is tendinosis. This is not good.

I was told to rest, ice, and when active to stop once I start to feel pain. I was given stretches and exercises to do and a brace to wear. I was going to run the “Run As One” 4 miler this morning, but after not sleeping last night due to the pain and the subsequent scooting around instead of walking this morning I obviously didn’t make it. (But Traci PRed, yay!)

I may go to the gym later to do core work, hand weights, and stretches, but other than that I’m laying low today. The only running related activity I am doing today is plotting out my 18 week fall marathon training plan.

Out of the back you fall in time, I somehow find you and I collide.

Good news, kids. My knee is only strained. Ice + rest + light miles and I should be good to go in NINE DAYS. This is the story of a girl…

Though after spending most of the day off my feet, covered in ice, and popping extra strength Tylenols all day yesterday, I feel much better. Will probably just do yoga tonight, run tomorrow, then the NYRR 8000 is this weekend. Fingers crossed that I won’t have to hobble through any of that mess.

But most importantly, the title of the post. This week two of my worlds have collided, big time.

First… Miss Jen works for a program in DC that is looking to use JM’s music during it’s opening. Though she didn’t reach out to us personally, the request landed on my desk to coordinate with JM. Once I recognized the show I immediately contacted her. After a few days of back and forth, JM has approved and we just need to get all of the paperwork complete. How completely random and awesome is it that our two big name bosses are kinda working together.

I was catching Aurora up on all of this yesterday and she reminded me that 6-7 years ago we all decided that STN would sometime rule the nation. Slowly and surely we’re making our mark.

And how about this one… For a few weeks I’ve raved about this fantastic new artist my company is working with. Before we officially started managing him, his label sent out an email soliciting musicians to try out for a band to support this unnamed artist. I had a hunch it was our guy, but I wasn’t sure and still sent out the email to a few musician friends. Flash forward a few weeks and Chris is now one of the two keyboardists being considered. Who would have thought that random nights above Rainbow would have led to him possibly playing with my artist on a major label. I absolutely love it. We should know if he’s selected later today or tomorrow. Good *vibes*.

ouch.

I ran one mile tonight. Seriously, I can’t tell you the last time I ran just one mile…

I took yesterday off and though I felt a bit of pain today, a bit of soreness doesn’t surprise me anymore. Because of the sensitivity, I was only going to run 4 easy miles and about 20 minutes of the elliptical but that obviously changed.

I barely finished one easy mile. The inside of my left knee felt tight and sore and really weak. I gave up because I don’t want to cause further injury and opted for low impact and low resistance elliptical. I belted out 30 minutes and felt fine.

The walk home was excruciating, I couldn’t barely bend it. I winced with every step and could barely continue conversing on the phone. WTF.

Through the magic of google, and reliable running sites, my pain could be caused by running the slopes in CP over the weekend. This is so not what I need right now.

So now I’m home, leg propped, with a bag of frozen blueberries resting on my knee. At least I can catch up on the past two weeks of “Lost” since I won’t be waking up early to run…

i’m falling apart

Literally.

To not be 100% gross, I won’t post photos showing you. See, I care.

For the past two weeks, I think I have chicken pox. Or leprosy. I’ve never had the pox, but I imagine that it feel like this, even though it doesn’t look like this. I have extremely dry patches on my skin, oddly only my right side, that itch like crazy. Because I’m an adult, I obviously scratch the patches and bumps until they bleed. They’re on my arm, back, hip, and leg. It’s driving me absolutely bonkers. Maybe Gold Bond will help?

During my run today my right knee (the problematic one) was sorer than usual and sensitive to the touch. Though I don’t recall banging it anywhere, the sides of my kneecap are bruised. This is what happened last time it was sore after the marathon. Joy. It doesn’t look swollen, but I have ice on it anyways.

And I have another black toenail. Also on the right side. WHich is the same side as my leprosy and bruised knee. I’m delicate, I can’t take my body falling apart!

when you’re falling down, falling down…

In the midst of all the craziness of last week, I also highly embarrassed myself on Broadway. I blacked out and collapsed outside of a label.

This also happened not too long ago in our office hallway, but I just passed it off as it’s nothing new. My vision gradually goes black from the outer corners in and I feel weak and dizzy then a few seconds later I’m back to normal. But when I was in the hallway last week, that was the first time I actually fell from it as I couldn’t hold myself up any more. I shrugged it off as I ran 8 miles that morning and had only coffee since breakfast. I felt fine once I got back to my desk.

The other morning, after I left a meeting and exited the doors, the same thing happened. My vision blacked, I felt very hot, and fell. I don’t remember falling. But thankfully someone I knew from the label was outside and helped me back up. I because freezing and shaking and sweating and it took a while for me to actually feel normal. Obviously this is not ok…

Conveniently I already had a doctor appointment scheduled the next day so I informed my doctor and she ran some blood work. I was borderline anemic when I had a physical last year and this time around, I dipped into the severe level. Though I had been taking oral supplements, it wasn’t enough. My low hemoglobin helps explain the dizziness and fainting, my inconsistent sleep, exhaustion, etc. Though I try to eat healthily and balanced, I’m certainly not getting enough iron naturally and being a vegetarian and a runner doesn’t help. So they upped the mg of iron and b that I usually take and I have to keep a food diary for a month. Perhaps eating peanut butter out of the jar for dinner hasn’t been the wisest choice??

wanna see something gross?

While on my run today, my right foot started hurting…which is nothing unusual since my right ankle and knee are the ones that I’m nursing. I only did five today, so I ran through it just figuring it was pain from the cobwebs since I haven’t ran more than two miles since the marathon.

When I got home, I took of my shoe to find a bloody sock and this beautiful gem of a toe:
(if you can’t tell, the top of the nail is broken, it’s bruised, and a bit swollen underneath)
(OUCH!)

marathon ensemble

While in Delaware, I completed my marathon ensemble. Though I have plenty of running clothes, obviously I needed something perfect for the big day…and also because I’ve never ran 4 hours outside in 40 degree temperature before.

Though I have running shoes, I want to get new kicks at least three weeks before the race. I meant to go yesterday, but ran out of time. Just in case I don’t, mine are suitable and only 6 months old, but still, they have hundreds of miles logged already.

I picked up another pack of my favorite socks – asics high performance tech running socks, a pair of Nike capri running pants with a zippy pocket for gels/salt/gum that are grey with an orange patch, and a purple Nike short sleeved tech t-shirt. Now I’m rocking my three favorite colors – orange, grey, purple – so that has to be good luck, right??

Since we have to line up in the corrals way earlier than the start time, and it will be a chilly, dark, November morning, I bought a bunch of “throw away” clothes. You bundle up so your body stays warm before the race, then you toss to the side or you strip while running. I found breakaway pants, a fleece zippy jacket, a pink wooly hat, and arm warmers (which I’ll probably wear for the first few miles then toss) all for about $12. Score.

So everything is complete in the attire sense… Less than a month away, eek. My right ankle is still sore… from the exterior all the way to the toes. Though funny, it hurts more when I’m idle then when I’m walking or running. Regardless I took this morning off and hopefully it will be better tomorrow. I don’t think it’s serious, just a pull or strain, I just don’t want to aggravate it any more. I’m ok with cutting back on miles this week to have it heal than have to scrap the 20+ miler planned for this weekend.

sweating blood

Ok, not really, but it seems like it. I’m gross.

46 days until the marathon. After my long run this weekend, I had a bloody shirt. Ok, because we can share secrets, I’ll tell you. MY NIPPLES BLED!!! This is only supposed to happen to guys. And my hip and ankles bled. And my nose. But I think that’s because I’ve been sick. Seriously, I thought I was dying.

Chris B had emailed me during my panicked state so I told him my predicament (he’s training for the Marine Corp Marathon on Oct 25th). He told me to bathe in body glide. Usually I just put it on my feet, but I guess I need a coating for my next long run.

Ouch.

Early morning run to kick off the week

Good morning sunshines!

I intended to run an easy 15 miles yesterday in the park before my day began, but that didn’t happen. I’m trying not to take as many Tylenol PMs at night and get on a regular sleeping schedule, so I went to bed unmedicated Saturday night. Mistake. I was up until about 4 am with words, events, and scenarios flooding my mind. Then I woke up at 6ish. Then 7:30 am. Grabbed coffee. Went back to bed to sleep for another hour since my body didn’t want to run. 9 am I was up and definitely not rested and was out of sorts for most of the day.

So I made up for it with a hard workout today. Eight Yasso 800 repeats with a mile warm up and mile cool down totaling about 7 miles. Here’s a link if you want to read more about Yasso 800s. Basically you run an 800 (half mile) at your goal marathon pace in minutes instead of hours, followed by a 2 minute jog. Since my goal time is 4 hours, I ran each 800 at 4 minutes.

My goal this week is to get miles in each weekday and take Saturday off and Sunday is the Queens Half Marathon. Ideally tomorrow I’ll get 12 in, 6 on Wednesday, 8 on Thursday, and 4 on Friday. If i can get those in and not sleep in, I’ll hit 50 miles for the week, an all time high – woohoo.

For the past few weeks I’ve had black nail polish on my toes. Took off the paint this morning and check that out, two black toenails and my big toe is bruised on the right side. I think I need to cover those babies back up with polish promptly:

i met ryan hall today!

While out today, I stopped but the NY Runners Shop on the Upper East Side to pick up shot bloks for the half marathon… and low and behold, Ryan Hall was there signing posters. Apparently it was a last minute thing…

And I just put together my stuff for tomorrow… I always lay my things out the day before since forgetting anything is not acceptable. Especially since I don’t think clearly in the morning.

The bruising on my foot has gone down slightly, hopefully it will be all gone by tomorrow…

Pics below because I’m a goon .