Runner's Knee Sucks

Latest Workouts
Sunday - 6.09/59:51
Tuesday - 3.63/32:56

Yep, runner's knee sucks. I guess the best part is it doesn't hurt when you're running. It only hurts when you're sitting still. I backed off my mileage a lot last week with only 9 miles for the whole week. I think that hurt more than my knee. The constant icing, the Advil, the knee brace and a new pair of insoles have seemed to help and I'm not dying this week. I plan to run Thursday and Friday. My long runs are going to be on Sunday until mid-November due to weekend commitments.

I'm getting ready for the Las Vegas Glow Run on October 7th. It's an un-timed 7k with full costumes, beer and craziness. The best part - I'll be running it with my best friend. We've known each other since 8th grade and she lives in Vegas with her handsome Air Force hubby. I'm so psyched!

We are going to dress like Wonder Woman so I'm in full costume preparation mode. The first part of any awesome running costume (IMHO) are fabulous socks. And these Wonder Woman socks - complete with capes - are the perfect foundation for our take on my personal childhood cartoon hero.

As the pieces of our costumes come together, I'll post them here.

I Run For Apple Crisp

Latest Workout:
Monday: 3.5 miles/ 33:10

Apple Dump Crisp

Well, it's official. I have runner's knee. I don't know if my "fat knee" was just the start of it or if my fall 10 days ago jarred my knee off track. Maybe it was both. But, despite me wanting to get up and run the last two mornings, I haven't. Not because it hurts when I run, but it burns like hell-fire when I sit with it bent or go down stairs. Crap.

I've been icing like crazy for the last two days and taking Advil like it is going out of style. The burning has eased off quite a bit, so of course I'm going to try and run tomorrow. I wanted to do six miles tomorrow, but it isn't going to happen. I must think long-term. I'll do three and see what happens. I have a new brace and I got new insoles for my shoes to give a bit more support. Fingers and toes crossed.

Dessert of the Week: Apple Dump Crisp

It's called a dump cake because that's all you do - dump it in the plate and put it in the oven. I took this recipe and added a bit more spice to it because you know I'm spicy and all.

Ingredients
1 box yellow cake mix
2 (21 oz) cans apple pie filling
1/2 cup of butter, cut into 1/2 Tbsp slices
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter melted

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF
2. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray
3. Pour both cans of apple pie filling into the dish
4. Spread the dry cake mix on top of the pie filling. Try to get this as even as possible.
5. Evenly place the butter cubes on top of the pie filling. This is important to avoid a lot of dry cake mix in the finished product.
6. Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg on top of the butter.
7. In a bowl combine the oats, brown sugar and melted butter and sprinkle on top of the cake
8. Bake for approximately 50 minutes. It should be bubbly and golden.
9. Cool on a wire rack.

Runny Boo Boo Child

Road Rash SUCKS! Day One.

Workout Updates:
Last Saturday: 8 miles (the Ugly Eight)
Monday: 3.31 miles
Thursday: 5.0 miles
Today: 8.0 miles

I'm not the most coordinated person in the world. Despite 20 years of dance lessons throughout childhood and college, I'm still very clumsy. When I started running, it seemed to be a safe choice for me with my limited coordination. We will not discuss how my one and only tennis lesson went. Well, I guess running and talking at daybreak isn't a good combo for me.

Last Saturday I wiped out pretty good at mile 3, skinning both of my hands, bruising my left knee and right hip and getting a horrible road rash on my right elbow. Brilliant.

Lumpy knee, day three.

Day 5 in my dress at LGA

We were crossing a road with those elevated white cups that create a make-shift turn lane/median in the road. I guess I was being a bit lazy and not picking up my feet like I should and my toe caught one of the cups. If I hadn't been carrying my water bottle, I think I would have caught myself with both of my hands and avoided the road rash.

It stung like crazy, but I poured some water (with Nuun in it) on my wounds and just kept going. Stopping to walk for a minute at mile six actually hurt my knee worse than running, so we picked back up the pace and finished up strong.

Back home, I iced my knee like crazy and applied Arnicare Gel every hour or so to try and avoid the giant bruise that I knew would crop up. After all, I bruise if you look at me sideways. I think this combo helped it not become totally black and blue until a few days later. I still wore a dress to a new business meeting on Wednesday and felt OK with how it looked.

I was sore from my bruises, but nothing has hurt worse than the road rash. I've had cuts and scrapes like any kid, maybe a few more. I fell off my horse in 2007 and was stepped on and dragged. But nothing has throbbed and hurt like my elbow. It is still ugly, gooey and gross. But I'm keeping it clean and covered and taking Advil when it gets uncomfortable. According to my research, road rash should be kept moist to avoid scaring. I'm hoping this advice is correct. My research also tells me that I'm in for another two weeks of this crap.

It hasn't stopped me from running this week. Although my miles were low - a combination of business travel and me not wanting to push my badly bruised knee too far - it felt good. Especially today as we ran the same route as last week's Ugly Eight (as it will be forever known). A little redemption today with a great run, beautiful sunrise and great company.

Labor Day 10K Race Review

This is what 9th Place looks like!
Andrea and I each place 9th in our age groups.

Labor Day 10K 
September 3, 2012 • Macon, GA
6.26 miles/ 55:58 chip time
9 out of 45 in age group;  213 of 560 overall

I've taken a break from my blog for the last week. Not really intentionally, but work does get in the way sometimes. My office responsibilities did not get in the way of completing my first chip-timed, official 10K on Labor Day in Macon.

Race day morning I got up early, ate some overnight oats with chia, had a cup of coffee and got dressed. My right knee felt funny. I call it fat knee, because that's the best way I can describe the feeling. On top of feeling "fat" it burned when I knelt on it, so I was a bit cautious of it for certain, but I wasn't going to let it stop me from racing. I debated wearing my knee brace the whole half-hour drive to the race, but I chose not to wear it and it all worked out okay.

There were 2500 people registered between both the 10K and 5K races through downtown Macon, Ga. I was pretty anxious the night before and that morning as well. Despite laying everything out for the race 12 hours in advance, I kept feeling like I forgot something. Finally I just told myself - if you have your shoes, bib and some shorts on your butt, you can run. So just get in the damn car.

I was so thankful to have my neighbors with me and it helped to have four teenagers chatting about stupid stuff while we waited for the race to start. Andrea's whole family runs and her husband and youngest son won second in the parent/child team division. Not to mention her youngest son got second in his age group and 14 year old daughter got third in hers. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

Is that a banana in your fuel belt or
are you just happy to see me?

The Runner's World plan I was using (Smart Coach) had me training for a 53:45 finish time. If it had been overcast or at least 10 degrees cooler than what it was, I think that time would have been totally do-able. But that plan doesn't take into account no shade, blazing sun and 80 degrees with 100% humidity. Oh, yeah - and I think I've mentioned before how much I hate the heat.

I was pretty psyched about the race, so I just put the heat out of my head. Put the tunes in my ears and tried to stay focused. I slowed down enough at every water station, not to drink, but to pour water down my back or on my head. I fell in with four other women about my age and speed who were marathon runners (well, they were wearing marathon race shirts, so I am making assumptions) and seemed to keep a pretty solid 9 minute pace. I fell a little behind during my water stops, but ended up finishing 10 seconds behind that group.

My watch said 56:00. My chip time said 55:58. My only goal was to finish under 60 minutes, so I'm pleased with the time I put up. I'm actually anxious to run another 10K without the extreme heat and humidity. I know I have a 53:45 in me. I just know it.


Latest Workouts:
Thursday: 3.5 miles/38 min treadmill
Friday: 4.02 miles/37 min

I've been on the road for work, so my running days got all mixed up this week. Running on a hotel treadmill is the equivalent to the second level of hell in my book and without a travel partner to know when and where I am going, I just don't think it is smart to run alone in places you don't know well. I've been babying my knee all week with ice, compression and Advil, so an extra day of rest on Wednesday was probably good for it anyway.

Catching Up

Latest Workouts

Yep - that stupid belt continues to be
a giant pain in my butt.
This is at 11.7 on Sunday morning.

Sunday: 11.8 mi/ 2:02
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 4 mi/ 38:00 - on dreadmill
Wednesday: 4 mi/ 37:01

I started this week behind. I did my long run on Sunday, which threw the rest of my typical running schedule off. I had all intentions to run on Monday, but I got up feeling like garbage so I decided to make it a rest day instead. Thanks to Tropical Storm Isaac, I got pushed inside on Tuesday morning. Even with an old episode of Teen Mom on the television, it was painfully boring. This morning my run was way more productive outside. Tomorrow, speedwork.

I did officially register for the Labor Day 10K on Monday. No turning back now. I'm sure I will whine and bitch about the heat, but I've got my fingers crossed for cloudy weather that morning. I want to get a chip timed 10K to use for corral placement at Disney and any other crazy race I decide to run this fall/winter. I've been running pretty well despite the humidity - much better than I was in June - so fingers crossed I'll perform well on race day.

I haven't really set a goal yet. I thought about it today on my run. Under an hour seems to be a reasonable goal, especially since "the plan" has said I should run it in 53 minutes, but I'm not going to let that piece of paper decide what my goal will be. I've never run a 10K before, but I'm hoping that running with others will help energize me, not to mention I'll be running a course that I used to drive daily when we lived in Macon, Ga. I think it will be fun to look at it from a different perspective.

Tune in tomorrow for Dessert of the Week.

I Run for Butter

Latest Workouts:

Brooks Pure Cadence

Wednesday: 5.34 miles/ 51:28
Thursday: 3.54 miles/33:59

I ran in my pink shoes for two days in a row. I don't know if the shoes are the issue or if my feet really hate me. Both? While my left foot (not the movie) seems to be improving in these new shoes, my right foot has gone and shown its ass. The inside arch of my that foot, especially around the ball of my foot and the joint of my big toe isn't liking something. I'm sucking it up and keeping up the ice soaks, taking Advil, and wearing compression socks. I'm not sure there's much else I can do. Eventually it will get better or I'll have to gnaw it off like that guy in 127 Hours.

Dessert of the Week: Gooey Butter Cake

I had a serious boyfriend when I was in high school and his mom baked once a week and made crazy good Tex-Mex. She called these golden bars of gooey goodness blondies, but every blondie recipe I've ever made tasted nothing like what I remember. That was until I tried this recipe for Gooey Butter Cake - bingo!

My research tells me that Gooey Butter Cake is a St. Louis, MO, delicacy. I almost don't believe this since the the over-use of butter was perfected by Southerners, but whatever. Warning: it is incredibly sweet. Make this recipe if you have company that likes sweets. While they are in a sugar-induced coma you can convince them to do anything for you - like paint your house or clean your cat litter box.

It is also important to have someone to give some of this cake to because you might eat the whole pan, no matter how sick it makes you.

Gooey Butter Cake

Ingredients:
1 Yellow Cake Mix
3 eggs
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) of melted butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
8 oz cream cheese (softened)

Directions:
1. Combine the cake mix, 1 egg and 8 tbsp of melted butter. Make sure mixture is nice and smooth.
2. Press mixture into the bottom of a greased pan. I used 9x13, but 9x9 will work too.
3. Whip cream cheese until smooth
4. Add remaining 8 tbsp melted butter, 2 eggs, vanilla to the cream cheese
5. Once smooth, gradually add in powdered sugar one cup at a time
6. Pour mixture over cake mixture already in the pan
7. Bake for 40 minutes

Check the cake so it doesn't over brown. It doesn't cook all the way through, so the knife test doesn't apply here. It should be gooey. Allow cake to cool before serving or else it will fall apart on you when you attempt to cut it.

Experiment with different flavors of cake mixes or add chocolate or pumpkin to the cream cheese mixture for a different flavor.

Link to Original Source: Gooey Butter Cake Recipe

Call Me Mrs. Maybe

Latest Workouts:

Saturday: 9.5 mi/ 1:34:21 - wicked hot even early
Monday: 3.85 mi/ 37.26 - raining

Who's the dork with the fanny pack under her boobs? 

Long run Saturday was a bit more painful than last week. I struggled most of the way. I don't know why. Maybe it was because we left an hour later than usual. Maybe it was because there was no cloud cover and by 7:30 it was 80ºF. Maybe it was because I was PMSing. Who knows. But I just didn't feel as strong as I did last week.

Maybe it it was my new running belt that I trotted out for the first time on Saturday morning. I looked at 100 different types all week and if I had just made a decision and ordered one on Monday I would have had it in time for my long run on Saturday, but I screwed around and waited until the last minute and had to make do with what they had at Dicks Sporting Goods. I could have just run without one, of course. I did last week, but I had it in my head that I needed a belt and I was going to have one.

Dessert Shroom

It's an okay belt. It holds stuff. The problem is I can't figure out where to wear it comfortably. I started off with it on my waist, but it kept bouncing or creeping up and it drove me crazy. So I tightened it as much as I could around my mid-section and it was comfortable there, but I looked ridiculous (see photo evidence). I used it again this morning and tried to wear it lower on my hips but it didn't stay put. Maybe one day this week I'll figure it out.

Today's "recovery run" was supposed to be 2 miles, but it felt so nice out this morning with the rain and the cloudy sky, I just did as much as I felt like at whatever pace I wanted. It was more than 2 miles, but it was a good run. Check out this weird mushroomI spotted in my neighbor's yard. It looks like flan or creme brulee to me.