In my last blog I told you about my best friend with colon cancer. She had surgery on Thursday to remove the cancer, and they were able to get the tumor out and only remove 1/3 of her colon. The doctor's said that the tumor was the size of a large grapefruit. She will be in the hospital until probably Thursday but is feeling much better. They will not know until test results are in- if she will have to have additional treatment. Thank you to all my friends for your thoughts and prayers.I have not been doing very good with my training, basically I have made it to track and to a long run on the weekends over the last couple of weeks. I need to get back to my Monday's and Thursday's quick. So my plan is to get in 3-5 miles tonight. Saturday was a 16 miler, I thought I was running 18 but when i got to Luke's the route card was for 16 miles with add on option when we got back. I had plans to babysit the twins at noon so I decided to take my 16 and then go home to prepare for my day with Catia and Ciarra (my bf twins). Babysitting the girls was a blast they are 2 of the happiest babies. My best friend is blessed with beautiful happy babies. 
Too cute!Although at this age they pretty much eat and sleep, we had lots of fun watching lifetime too. All of you that know me, know I do not have children of my own (yet), so I live vicariously through my friends that do. Sunday morning I got up and went for a much needed massage at Massage Envy, one hour with Cruz and I felt like a new woman. There were a few times I thought I would have to B-slap her for hurting me, but I had lots of knots in my neck and shoulders that needed to be worked out. Later in the day my husband and I went to see Pam in the hospital.
Last night at track was good other than the attack of the mosquito's. Thank god for coach Bill and his OFF or we would have been picked up and carried away by the bird sized mosquito's. It was a lite work out out a 1/2 mile warm up and 5 x 400's for me. 1. app 2:15 (slow) 2. 1:45 (too Fast) 3. 2:07 4. 2:02 and 5. 2:00. All with 200 recoveries. By the time we were finished the I had sweat the off the OFF and ran to my car before I got ate for dinner.
It has been almost a week since we got our power back and yet I still have friends that do not. I do not understand how one neighborhood has power and the next does not. I chose not to run on Saturday and planned a long run for Sunday. Friday night my husband and I went to dinner and a few drinks, which I really needed. Sometimes I feel like I can not stay at the house a have a drink, sometimes I need to pay $3 or $4 for one beer than to buy a whole six pack and drink at home. I really needed a Saturday to sleep in, so I did but I went up to Luke's about 8:00 and after all of my running friends finished their run we got together at Berryhill for taco's. It was great to see my friends and to hear their hurricane stories. Everyone survived some with no damage some with quiet a bit. On Sunday I got up and went to Starbucks to meet up with some WRC members for a long run. Debbie Tripp and I decided we wanted to run 12 so we met at 6:30 and ran out one mile and ran back. We meet up with Judi, Susan, Najat & fast Robin. It was a nice run a little humid at first but it was not scorching hot. About 1:00 in the afternoon my husband and I went to visit one of my very dear friends and her family. We spent the day by the BBQ pit and chit chatting about old times and new. You see my friend was just diagnosed with colon cancer on Wednesday and we should know today when she will be scheduled for surgery. They will not know how extensive the cancer is until they get in there see what they have to work with. Please say a prayer for her and her family, as she has 3 small children a little boy 2-1/2 and twin girls that are 4 months today. It makes me so mad every time I hear the word cancer. I have had many family members that battled cancer (all have perished) and it is such a horrible disease. I am so angry that such a young (37 yrs old) vibrant women is about to go through surgery this week and then possibly months of agonising treatments.
Last I finally got a touch of normalcy. There was no generator to gas up(when there was no gas), nothing on the pit, the yards on my street are starting to look manicured, the trees are coming off/out of my neighbors homes and slowly but surely power is coming back up in the streets around me. OH and WE HAVE GAS AGAIN!!! I finally got to get out for a run last night. I never thought that Ike would cause so much BLAH for me, my family and my friends especially since I live about 40 miles north or downtown Houston and even further from the coast. I went to Debbie's house and we ran our Millbend Loop it is a 3.7 miles loop with a .4 mile walk to the loop for a warm up and a .4 mile walk back to her house for our cool down. This does not seem like a far run and it wasn't but we were out there on the path again, only to jump over a few small branches. It was peaceful and the breeze was cool. This weekend I am going for a 10 miler.. We'll see how that goes.
By Thursday morning it was pretty certain that Ike was headed very close in our direction. Though there is always that cone of uncertainty, I myself was almost certain. My company let us leave at noon on Thursday to go home and prepare. This is the first hurricane I can remember going through as I was not here in 1983 during Alicia (I dodged that one because my family lived in Corpus Christi). It was pretty scary, I tried to wait up Friday night- Saturday morning for when it hit but I was to exhausted and went to bed. I did wake up as it came through and slept very little from about 2:30 am until 6:30 am. We lost power about 4:00 am on Saturday and after the rain calmed down we went to my father in laws and picked up a generator. It has been kind of fun hanging out with the neighbors, cooking on the BBQ pit, drinking beer, listening to the sound of the generators through out the day and night. We were very fortunate to have no damage to our home, but alot of people on my street were not so fortunate. Luckily we never lost water so I was able to shower each night- that was a blessing. I did get power late last night so we are truly blessed. My heart goes out to the families who have lost their homes and loved ones. I am truly blessed that everyone in my family was unharmed. God Bless all of you in the Texas Gulf Coast area. You are all in my prayers.
Track workout last night was hard, thank god for my running friends that get me through the hard workouts. I kind of laughed when Bill said you need to be easy tonight I want you to run 1 miles easy then run 2 harder and then 1 more easy. "WHAT"? So I ran the first easy about 12 min pace, 2nd was 10:27, 3rd was 9:52 and I walked the last 1/2 mile and then I was DUN! I chit chatted with Bill and the girls and then headed home for shower, crab cakes and bed.We are still watching hurricane Ike that is threatening the Texas Coast, where will it hit? Mexico? Corpus Christi? Galveston? Lou/Texas boarder? Hopefully we will know soon, but it is kind of looking like it could interfere with my training this weekend no matter where it hits.
On Sunday I half hobbled to Tektonic for our Woodlands Fit seminar on Running economy. Yes I said half hobbled, my quads were so fatigued from my long run on Saturday. Mentally I was fine but to get out of the car or walk up and down the stairs or shit just to get out of my recliner was a bit of a challenge. The seminar was really informative and Dr. Sutton shed some light on running economy and biomechanics. I signed up for the biomechanics test (for Monday night) so I could see where I needed work and where I was weak.Monday morning my soreness and muscle fatigue had gone away until Monday night when I went on my training run. I had planned a 40 min. loop around my neighborhood but about .15 into the run I decided my quads were still very much fatigued. I cut the run short to 2.1 approximately 27mins. and took it very slow. We had a few days of great weather with temps about 67 degrees and no humidity. But Monday the heat was back and the humidity was about 90% :(! After my run I went home and took a shower to get ready for my biomechanics testing. Yes a shower just so I could go run on a treadmill and sweat some more. Did I mention that in the short 2 miles I ran that the humidity sucked and I was dripping wet.I arrived at Tektonic around 7:45 and "fast Robin" or "special K" was finishing her testing as well. She told me to have fun and then I was scared! This testing was really cool, first of all I HATE yes HATE running on a treadmill, but this one was not so bad it did not have a convaer belt, this was made with wood. Very cool and easy to run on. Dr. Sutton videoed my walking at 3.8 miles per hour, then running at 5.5 and then at 6.5. The whole test was about 3-1/2 mins long. Afterward we looked at my video and evaluated my running economy. OK so what I learned from this is on the left side I am just pretty much screwed...my gluts are weak, my quads are weak and my calf's are ok but still need work. The right side.. my gluts are weak, my quads are pretty good but work needed and my calf's are ok but need work. All of this causes my hips to drop, over pronation, and my left strike is horrifying. My upper body I need to show more movement in my arms- they need to come back more. The best thing about my running economy is my heal to toe strike is pretty good, but not great on the right side. In a few days I will get my video and a report on how to correct and strengthen these running economy throw ups I have.
Saturday morning long run from Luke's was fabulous. I woke up at 4:45 and had lots of time to get everything ready, when I walked outside I knew it was going to be a great morning for a run. It was 67 degrees and very crisp. I was a little nervous because I had 16 miles on the schedule and I had never run more that 14.2. We ran wit the half marathoners for 10.5 miles and I guess we missed our first water stop because we did not see water until right at 6 miles. Thank goodness for the cool weather because we would have been dying. We went back to Luke's and picked our new route cards for the final 6 miles. There were options from 13-18 with different turn around points. I was feeling so good that I added and extra 1.5 miles. So yesterday was the first time I knew I can finish my first marathon in November. I am so excited. 17.5, 3 hr 18 mins. 11:22 avg pace Whoo Hoo
! Here is my photo after the run..
All I can say is ouch. Last night at track was probably the roughest since last year. Started out with 1.3 warm up at a 10:32 pace. Then Bill broke the bad news that it was time for a real workout and let us know that we were running 5 x 800's with 200 recovery's.1. 4:29, 2. 4:37, 3. 4:42, 4. 4:36, 5. 4:32Then cool down.. Home by 8:00 and in the shower alseep by 9:30.
Very little training since last week. But I did go to the lake for the holiday weekend and relaxed with friends. We pretty much stayed in the water/boat and drank lots of beer. I also introduced body glide to everybody because by Monday morning we were all walking goofy from being in the water for 15 hours a day and the chub rub. When we weren't in the water we were watching Gustav to make sure we would be safe while enjoying the weekend. Thank god this one stayed away and did not do to much damage to LA and Mississippi. I am quite sore and very bruised from climping in and out of the boat. Track will have to be some what easy tonight.
