My WebMD Diagnosis...

I woke up this morning with the same nagging pain to the ball of my right foot that was bothering me during my run last night. It wasn't an intense pain, but it was bothersome so I spent a few minutes massaging my foot and trying to relieve the "tightness" I was feeling.

I decided to obtain my medical degree on WebMD so I went online to research my symptoms. This is what I came up with...

The pain I have is more of a dull pain. It was sharp at one point this morning, but it's mostly dull and it's right by the base of my 2rd and 3rd toe (right on the ball of my foot). It's kind of like this...

(where the red dot is... by the 2nd & 3rd metatarsal heads)

So, if that's what is actually going on with my foot, the recommendation is to rest it and apply ice to the area. I'm going to start doing that tomorrow... and by rest I mean not overdoing the running and maybe changing my footfall position back to heel striking for a bit (just to take the pressure off the ball of my foot). And since my fridge is broken and the earliest repair appointment I could get is next week Monday, the icing process will commence tomorrow morning. 

Last Minute Changes & Happy Feet...

I had great plans for a long-ish run this evening after work, but I came home to a fridge that stopped working and general grossness inside. As a result my after work "de-stress" run with Mary got cancelled and I spent the evening cleaning out my fridge. Luckily I'm a minimalist when it come to grocery shopping (I buy the least amount possible so I can spend the least amount of time there) and there wasn't a lot of ruined food. I decided not to "taste and see" if any of the food survived being in a room temperature fridge all day, because in reality the most important things in there were my lentil hummus and soy yogurt... and they're good, but they're not that good 😉.

Once I completed the fridge cleaning I decided to salvage the evening with a shorter run. I went out with the "let's see how far I can go" mindset, and ended up doing a 5K...

Normally a 5K run provides more value than it's monetary equivalent (I am a runner after all)...

...but 2017 is going to be an expensive year so... an extra $5K wouldn't hurt either 😉

Just A Few Words...

Today was a pretty quiet day. My niece and nephew and I were up late because my noisy neighbors decided that they didn't need to respect the sleep time hours of the rest of the complex. By the time we fell asleep it was after midnight. So this morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed for breakfast, and then played games on the stairs in between "let's wake up Kai" sessions (none of which were successful 😕). The kids had a great time though...

And after they went home I spent most of the rest of the day in bed catching up on the sleep that eluded me last night. 

I also spent some time at the local running store looking at night lights. Then I came home and waited for the sun to set so I could go on my long run...

The "long run" ended up being only 2.2 miles...

It's hard to do a long run at the end of the day when you're still exhausted from not getting enough sleep. It was also pretty dark in sections of the route I ran and I wasn't able to get the night light I wanted so I had extra motivation to cut my run short. 

Race week #3 for 2017 starts tomorrow! I'm looking forward to another race and another medal 😊.

How was your Sunday?

How many miles was your long run?

Do you have noisy neighbors or are they nice normal people?

Sweat, Smiles & Stapes...

I'm babysitting my niece and nephew tonight, but when they got to my house I still hadn't completed my daily run. So once they finished eating and I got them settled I decided to take advantage of the "downtime" and run my mile. It was slow and felt like a struggle, but I'm glad I was able to finish it...

Then I went inside and had this conversation with my niece...

Niece: You're done already?

Me: Yes, I only did a mile

Niece: You were gone for one minute

Me: Well, it was 12 minutes actually

Niece: You're sweating

Me: Thanks honey bunny, I know

Niece: Why are you sweating so much if you only ran for one minute?

Me: Twelve minutes... but it's hot outside.

Niece: Hmmm... that's a lot of sweat Aunty LeAnne

Me: Time for bed 😑.

(I'm just kidding about that last one 😂)

Prior to the run and my niece's evaluation of my sweat production, I had a somewhat productive day at work. I'm putting the final touches on my poster and it will soon be ready for the "grand reveal". It's really coming together though and I'm excited for the opportunity to share the non-accidental trauma (child abuse) guideline that I worked so tirelessly on. I think that all nurses have a set of patients that they feel really passionate about advocating for. I've been a Pediatric ER & Trauma nurse (in some capacity) over the past 12 years and it's been both rewarding and heartbreaking. Accidents happen and sometimes kids get hurt... that's just a reality of the world we live in. But when a child is intentionally injured by an adult who should be caring for them... that's a problem. Anyway, once the poster is completely ready the image will be sharper, but until then...

(this is the general layout so far)

Jumpstarting The Weekend...

I was able to find my way to the gym this morning! I actually woke up around 3am and could not go back to sleep, so I figured it would a good idea to get a strength training workout in. Initially I was going to run after the gym but the air was nice and cool outside so I used the one mile run as my strength training warm up...

(not a bad pace for a 3am run 😊)

I was exhausted after and gasping for breath, so I did a cool down walk and was finally able to take a post-run selfie...

And then I went to the gym. I have a routine that I normally do on the leg press that's based on this...

This Time Last Year...

This week last year my training regimen looked a lot different than it does right now. I took a trip down my "blog post memory lane" to see what I was up to in February 2016 and discovered this...

The week was off to a great start and I had already completed an early training session that day...

(I haven't completed a swimming workout since the start of 2017 so I'm definitely falling behind where swimming is concerned).

In addition to my 2016 swimming training I was also getting my long runs in at a decent pace...

Between Restlessness & Exhaustion...

So I'm a little tired. Ok, I'm A LOT tired, and I've had this nagging headache that doesn't seem to want to go away. I ended up missing my run this morning so that I could get some more rest and hopefully sleep my headache away. But it didn't work. So for right now I'm aiming to linger in a state between restlessness and exhaustion and hopefully get through my daily run tonight.

Between sleeping in and keeping up with this blogging streak I had a busy day at work planning for an upcoming conference that I'm going to attend/present a poster at. The conference is right before my next half marathon which is the Miami Beach half... next weekend!!!

The Miami Beach half was my desired PR race, but after the A1A half last weekend I'm really not sure I'll be able to pull it off. The reality of that is pretty sobering because as the weather gets hotter and more humid in Florida, a PR seems further and further out of reach. I'm still going to put in the work and preparation and aim for it, but I come back from my work trip late on Saturday night and my race is bright and early on Sunday morning 😞. So the combination of being tired and having to run in the heat probably won't be great.

While I'm planning for the upcoming Miami Beach half and work stuff, I'm also planning for future stuff with my ZOOMA Ambassador group. With that in mind, I'm excited to share that the ZOOMA leadership team recently opened additional ambassador spots!!! If you are interested you can apply here. 

You can also check out the entire schedule of ZOOMA races (here) and decide which one(s) you want to register for 😉)...

How was your Wednesday?

Have you ever been a race ambassador?

Do you have any PR goals for this year?

A1A Races Pics & Other Race News...

Race photos are in!!!! First let me say that my current running related financial situation necessitates a focused allocation of financial resources towards race entry fees and travel. As a result I'm not currently motivated (financially or otherwise) to purchase race photos. And I certainly won't purchase them for a race that sucked. BUT I will share them and willingly give all the photo credit to the official photographers and their employer (thank you MarathonFoto!). I happen to like the pictures from the A1A half on Sunday because I look like I'm having a great time (even though inside I felt like I was dying)...

(not the best running form (arms should not cross over body) but still a nice pic 😎)

I think I must have been in a hypoglycemia induced state of delusion during which my facial expressions were not accurately reflecting the agony I was actually feeling...

And you can tell that's what's probably happening because I seem to be waving to photographers that may not actually be there, while completely ignoring the ones who are taking my race pictures...

Garmin, Selfies, & What Keeps You Going...

My legs felt surprisingly good this morning considering what I put them through at the half marathon yesterday. And even though it wasn't my best half marathon experience, the 13.1+ miles helped me win my Garmin Step Challenge...

But by the time the evening rolled around my legs felt heavier and I barely made it through my one mile run...

Post-run pic...

If it wasn't for my running streak I would have taken a complete rest day, but my daily run has become somewhat of a habit for me so even when I'm tired I try and find the motivation to get it done...

A1A Half Marathon {Race Recap}

If I could sum up this race in one word it would be: Miserable. Not because of anything the race organizers did (or didn't do) but because the weather was hot and humid and it made for very challenging race conditions. Even at 5:30am when I was walking towards the start line I overheard people commenting about the weather. But despite the weather, thousands of runners showed up...

Including a few friendly familiar faces...

The wait at the start went by quickly and we were off only a few minutes after the initial 6:00am start time. This race has a rolling corral start system so everyone most people lined up according to their pace... 

(video may not play on mobile device)

(that's me with the blue arrow sticking out of my head 😉)

Hydrating & Stranger Things...

Well the day before my 20th half marathon is finally here and the race directors have issued a heat advisory...

(juuuust great 😑)

I took it easy for most of the day. I hydrated, got some rest, and started watching a new Netflix series...

But prior to spending the day relaxing in bed, I did one of my fastest 1 mile runs in over a year...

(a 9:31 min/mile pace!!! 😀)

A Chance of Daily Happiness...

I absolutely loved the weather for my run this morning! It was nice and cool and perfect... especially since I was only doing a mile...

Yesterday when I did my 5K run with Jani I was feeling simultaneously happy with my pace (10:19 min/mile average pace) and wondering how far behind I've fallen in my overall training. And then, this morning, Facebook sent me a memory from last year...

It was a good reminder that even though I feel like I've fallen behind training-wise, I'm not far from where I used to be. Reminders like these also help keep me motivated. I have to work on it more (obviously) but a sub-30 minute 5K is not so far fetched after all 😊.

***

Thursday's 5K and The Weekend...

This morning's run was the last of the distance or pace runs on the "training plan" prior to my half marathon this weekend. But to be honest I haven't really been following a strict training plan. I've just been trying to get my runs in and doing longer runs whenever possible. Not having a plan is definitely a recipe for disaster though. Each training run should have a specific purpose to help develop a specific aspect of my running. The same can be said for cross training sessions (but I've been skipping all of mine so there's not much to talk abut there). I'm still doing my running streak so even though I've been running every day, at least 3 or 4 of those days should have a training focus. For me it's easy to "decide" what type of training run I should do right as I prepare to start. But I need to train myself to go into each session with a pre-established plan and a goal for that session.

I didn't really have a pre-established plan this morning, but I was running with Jani and we both wanted to work on speed...

We followed a similar pattern to the run we did on Tuesday: run the first mile; take a 1 minute walk break; run for 0.5 miles; take a 30s - 60s walk break; run (again) for 0.5 miles. But at the end of it we were happy with our pace...

(Those are our "we feel invincible" smiles)

Random Wednesday Ramblings...

It's finally Wednesday! It's the middle of the week so the countdown to the weekend can officially begin!!! My morning included this Kodak moment on my way to work...

(I just love the sunrise in the backdrop of this fog filled field)

Prior to heading to work, I did a 3 mile run with Andy... 

And then once I got to work I went in desperate search of coffee...

(source: somewhere in my IG feed)

Distance Means Nothing & The New Look...

"Distance means nothing" is not entirely true as it relates to running (and anyone who has ever run a marathon can attest to that); but it's certainly true when your Valentine is miles away...

LDRs are hard but he makes it worth it...

@SitariPoetry

Valentine's Day or not, training never ends so I woke up early this morning and ran with Jani...

Not The Best Start To Race Week...

I was so happy to get home and crawl into bed after a very long day. I feel mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted so the rest of my Monday will be spent curled up in bed...

source

Thankfully I did a one mile run this morning so I don't have to worry about breaking my running streak. This morning's run was done with Mary. She is coming back from an injury and I did 10 miles yesterday so neither of us wanted to push too hard during the run. So we did the mile in a little over 11 minutes... 

Then we did the obligatory social media sharing (you know cause otherwise it didn't happen 😉) and one of the Instagram accounts we follow reposted Mary's post (which I thought was pretty cool)...

It's race week and I'm really trying to get excited about my upcoming half marathon this weekend; but that's hard to do when you're not feeling well. Hopefully that will change by race day. Until then... I hope you had a great start to your week! 

Training Tips & Sunday Specials...

Today's Training Tip: Do not eat a pint of ice cream and go to bed late the night before a long run. 

I was exhausted and sluggish for this morning's long run. I can deal with "running while tired" (I've done that before) but running while tired and loaded with 720 unnecessary sugar calories was not the best idea. In any event I got it done. I still can't figure out how to turn off the auto save feature on my Garmin vivoactive (if you happen to know please tell me because it's the most annoying thing) so my run was saved in two segments: 3.77 miles "before the restroom break" and 6.45 miles "after the restroom break" for a total of 10.22 miles:

(average pace: ~ 12:00 minutes/mile)

Overall it was a decent run (even though I felt like I was slowing Mimi down)...

And after the run I went home, took a shower, and went back to sleep for a few hours. I gave Kai strict instructions to wake me up again at 11:45am so that I didn't sleep the entire day; and when I finally got up we went for a special Mother-Daughter lunch date at one of my favorite restaurants...

(@JAlexander's)

Another Successful Day...

Today was the last day of the Trauma Symposium! It was a huge success thanks to an amazing team leader and friend...

(Candace and me)

The highlight of the past few days was catching up with my former Pediatric Trauma Medical Director...

Both Candace and I worked with Dr. Stylianos when we were at Miami Children's Hospital...