But, It Doesn't Hurt!

Knee update.....Tomorrow's post will probably be filled with lots of "I told you so's".
Thursday afternoon, I took my little knee to the doctor. My doctor was out for the day so I saw a different doctor. She touched me knee, maybe once and came up with a diagnosis of, "knee sprain and lateral ligament strain"
What I heard was, you do not have a broken knee, nor did you tear anything.
She talked about 'RICEing" my knee, Rest, Ice, Compression and elevation. She also said round the clock Motrin. She mumbled something about 8 weeks....who knows what she was talking about. She also mumbled about not running Bidwell this coming weekend, and not wanting to see me the Monday after Bidwell. Look, lady, you aren't my real doctor, and mine will be back in town next week, so you won't see me...HA!

Ok, so I have had zero pain in my knee all weekend. I walked about in healed boots this weekend in San Francisco, I cleaned the garage, and rearranged the kids bedroom furniture, and I have zero knee pain.

I think tonight I will head to the gym and do the elliptical, until I get board, probably a minute after I start, and do weights. I will see how my knee feels, I may do a short run on Tuesday and see if I can run the 1/2 on Saturday. People keep saying not to run, but dang it, I will go crazy if I don't run!!!

Are You Kidding Me????

First off....Why in the heck have I not run for a week? What is going on? Oh, yeah, I have a super comfy couch, that's been the problem :).

Well, yesterday was Ash Wednesday. During Lent every year I give something up. Many years it is Soda. This year I decided I couldn't give up my soda addiction for 40 days, I couldn't give up Facebook, although I should, so I had to choose something. My first thought came this weekend, when Shaun and I were shooting a wedding at "Old Sugar Mill" in Clarksburg. The place was amazing. It had numerous wine tasting rooms, an awesome vineyard across the street, and just a really great feel to it. I said to Shaun, why aren't we wine drinkers. This place is awesome and the people here are all dressed very cool....I want this to be me. I told him for Lent, we should give up our hatred for the taste of wine, and become wine drinkers. Basically, we should give up sobriety for Lent. Too bad I really can't stand the taste of wine, it tastes like vinegar to me, can't do it. So, this year for Lent, I decided that I will stick to a better running routine. I will get out there 4 days a week and run. There are many weeks already that I do this, but not every week.

So, my running during Lent plan hit a snag on night one........I ran 4.11 miles last night. It felt great, and my speed was wonderful. During mile 3, my right knee felt a little tight. It didn't hurt, didn't slow me down, just had a tightening feeling on the outside of my knee. When I completed my run, I went in the house to tell Shaun about my run. As I sat down, my knee suddenly felt very tender and like it needed to pop. I moved it around a little bit, and then the really bad pain started. I immediately started to cry, not because of the pain, but because I have a race in 8 days, and running is ME! Dang it this stupid knee!!!

I was hoping this morning it would feel better, but not so far. Last night every time I would roll over, the knee pain would wake me up. Doctor's appointment at 3:50 today....she better tell me that running will make it better! That is the only answer I will accept!!!

Maybe for Lent, I should have just said I would eat Girl Scout Cookies all day everyday! I could actually stick to that!

February 22, 2012, 4.11 miles, 37.01 (average per mile 9:00). Year to date 76.01 miles, average time per mile 10:06.

8 is Great!

Last night Roshell and I did an 8 mile long run. I was hoping all day to receive a call from her that she was cancelling, but the call never came. When we met up, she said to me, "I wouldn't have minded if you cancelled tonight." My response was, "we can do an easy 4 I am cool with that." I looked at my GPS at the 3.75 mile mark, and realized we weren't going to do an easy 4, since we were already 3.75 out.

In the end, the run was great, she and I chit chat so much, and take an easy pace, it never seems like work. When I do a long run alone, I want to die, but with Roshell, it is just an evening out, with girl talk.

Thanks for a great 8!!

February 15, 2012, 8 miles, 1:29:49 (average per mile 11:13). Year to date 71.90 miles, average time per mile 10:10.

Went to the Gym

The last 2 weeks, the running motivation has run away from me. Last night I decided I would try the gym, to see if I could get myself going again. Only 2 more weeks until my next half marathon, so I need to get training.

When I got to the gym, I was excited! I walked through the doors, and decided a treadmill run was the right choice for me tonight. One of the TV's had the Bachelor on, so I had to stay away from that side of the gym. My reward for getting a run in, was going home to watch the Bachelor. The other side of the gym had Extreme Couponing, Black Friday, and The Voice. I a m not a fan of the Voice, I watch Idol, and that is about all I can take of the singing shows, but it was a good running distraction while TLC had commercials on. With the entertainment taken care of, I decided 3.1 would be a good distance for the night. I am running 8 on Wednesday night with Roshell, so a short run is perfect. I started my run, and just like riding a bike, it was easy to fall right back where I had left off.

Three cheers for a successful run last night!!

February 13, 2012, 3.11 miles, 25.51 (average per mile 8:20). Year to date 63.90 miles, average time per mile 10:02.

Schedule of Events

2012 is becoming a bit overwhelming, but I will just breathe and go with it.

Let's start with my race schedule. I am trying to get The 2012 California Half Marathon Series medal....To qualify for the medal, you have to run 4 1/2 marathons in the series, with the last one being the Walnut Creek 1/2 in December. The ones I have decided to complete are:

1. The Bidwell Classic 1/2 3/3/12

2. Either the Moonlight races in Davis 7/14/12 or The Santa Rosa Marathon 1/2 8/26/12

(I really want to run the Moonlight race, but Davis in July at 7pm has an average temp of 90 degrees...I don't really want to die, while running a 1/2. Santa Rosa is wine country, but I don't want to travel....I have to decide next week)

3. The Chico Almond Bowl in November

4. Walnut Creek 1/2 12/8

I am also running the Rocklin Run again this year on 4/15/12. This is just a 5k, so I can work more on speed, and the benefits go to a good cause.

All of these races require training....Which gets me to the slightly overwhelming portion....I need to make sure I have room in my schedule in the evenings for 5 runs a week. Jaylee has gymnastics practice 2 days a week, and 7 meets on Saturdays from March to June. Jaylee also plays indoor soccer on Wednesday nights. Jacob has baseball practice/games 3 days a week. The kids have to get to and from their Dads house in Santa Rosa (2 hours away) every weekend, and arrangements have to be made to get around their sports. Shaun and I have a ton of weddings booked this year, and finding time for all of the Brides and Grooms engagement shoots, has been a challenge. Also, finding time to meet with the Brides and Grooms to book the weddings is work. I also have this full time job thing to work around, kids homework, play time, cleaning time and relaxing time. Ok, I am really overwhelmed after typing all of that.....ummm, I think I will go back to work now, and stop thinking about all this, and just let it flow!! Time to put my headphones on and type some cases!!! Oh, and by the way, this was written while I was on my break. :)

I LOVE My Life!!!

Road Rage

Last nights run is dedicated to the Jerk in the white Lexus that decided since he doesn't know how to merge, he would just flip me off out of his sunroof for 2 miles. People apparently do not know how to use the zipper system when 2 very slow nearly stopped lanes of traffic are coming together. He decided to no let me in, and speed up, so there would be no space between him and the car in front of him. He was a big immature jerk and just continued to flip me the bird. I wanted to fight him, which is strange, because I hate confrontation, and I have never been in a fight, but he made me super mad......Instead of fighting I went for a run.

I realized when I ran, that it has been 10 days since TinkerBell...umm, hello why haven't I run in 10 days, what am I doing? I have 23 days until the Bidwell Classic 1/2 marathon, this is no time for taking a break!!!

I ran a really satisfying run, and after I was done, I didn't want to punch anybody. I was also super excited to see that the street lights are back on!! I will be so pissed if someone steals the wiring again, I hate bumping into things while I run.

During my run I did math....some people who know me, know that I am constantly doing math in my head, I do math in the shower, while driving and while running. I have no idea why, I don't like math, but it gets me through things. I have the best laid out budget in my head! Last nights math determined that even though I had a slow January, I can still reach 1000 miles in 2012, I don't know for sure if I want to reach 1000, but it would be pretty freaking awesome if I did it. We will see.

February, 8 2012, 3.23 miles, 30.03 (average per mile 9:18). Year to date 60.79 miles, average time per mile 10:08.

Weekend in Pictures.....

My weekend did not include any running...that means, I haven't run at all in February, what the heck, I better run tomorrow!!

Saturday started with Jaylee's gymnastics meet at Flip 2 It. The girls came in 3rd place. Jaylee and I decided to stay and watch some of her friends on level 3 compete, and then decided to stay and watch the level 5 girls compete. We had a full day, 9 hours at the gym.





After the meet, Jaylee and I took her friend to meet up with her parents at her brother's baseball practice. There we ran into our favorite 2nd grade girls!!


Jacob went to Jaylee's meet, but did not have to stay all day. He and Shaun hit the batting cages, and the baseball field....


After a full day of baseball for him, he passed out in the car on the way home!!

Jaylee's weekend ended with her "feeling ill" She spent all day Sunday in bed :(

It is officially crazy time for us....the wedding season is starting early for us, 2 weeks away....engagement shoots are also filling our days. Jaylee's gym meets are in full swing, from now through June, and Baseball practice starts this week!! Did I mention that Shaun is managing Jacob's team? Busy, busy, busy!!!
This doesn't just make weekends busy, during the week we have 2 days of gymnastics, 2 days of baseball practice and Jaylee has indoor soccer 1 day a week....I love my life!!!

TINKERBELL!!

So mad!! I typed up my post for tonight and it ran away!!!

In brief....the TinkerBell half marathon was the best run of my life!! I blew my PR away by 5 minutes 49 seconds!!

Final time was 2:10:00!!!

Time to brag.....it's my blog so I get to do that!!!

9386 women ran the race (960 men ran, but they were not eligible for awards, so they didn't include them in the stats.)

I came in 1079...top 11%

Women ages 30 to 34 1717

I came in 217

Oh, and I started in corral A....that is the corral for the fast and elite runners.....why they put me there, I don't know, but it was awesome :) out of 5 corrals, I was in number 1 whoo hooo!!!

I will be running this every year, and next year I will be staying in the Grand Californian Hotel and Spa....and the kids won't be coming with me....they will come with me the following year.

Distance	HALF MAR
Clock Time	2:10:17
Chip Time	2:10:00
Overall Place	1079 / 9386
Gender Place	1079 / 9386
Division Place	217 / 1717
Age Grade	51.1%
5K Split	29:43
10K Split	1:00:28
15K Split	1:31:26

January 29, 2012, 13.1 miles, 2:10:00 (average per mile 9:55). Year to date 57.56 miles, average time per mile 10:10.