Going Back in Time: January 17 - 23rd

What a week! To try to recap:

Monday, January 17th: Mita's LAST DAY of chemo! Hooray! She and Anu hosted an "End of Chemo Celebration" party in her infusion suite - complete with cake, crackers, cheese, soda. At times there were up to 10 (plus?) of us in the room celebrating her last chemo treatment. It was certainly a momentous occasion!

Tuesday, January 18th: Got up in the morning, put on my warm clothes and managed to choke down a "Gu" (a fairly disgusting, thick, energy thingy). I wanted to start experimenting with them as I could not remember which flavors were least disgusting last time around. And now they have all sorts of new aspects to them - some have caffeine, some don't, some have double caffeine, some are berry flavored, some are more creamy like vanilla. Had planned on waiting for a longer run to try them out, but the salesperson at Fleet Feet wisely suggested I try them on a short run. Not that you NEED the energy on a short run, but some people, ahem, react better or worse to them and she suggested that if it made me feel ill, I would be happier to be closer to home, and to not have ruined a long run. That advice made a lot of sense! So I choked down a vanilla flavored non-caffeine one....went outside....took 3 steps.....slid.  Took another few steps......slid...turned the corner and managed perhaps 20 plus steps.....and slid into a puddle that hadn't yet frozen. At that point I turned around and very carefully made my way back home - it was just sheer ice in most places.

Trouble was, it was the day after Mita's chemo had ended! I was so pumped up - it was my victory run! AND I had now just taken a GU so I had extra energy to spare. We had not yet become members of the Chicago Park District (so couldn't go on a treadmill). What to do?

Well, I changed from my warm outdoor running clothes into shorts and a short sleeve shirt - and I found TWO MILES in our downstairs level! What do I mean by that? I had thought perhaps I could just run in place downstairs. That didn't work. So instead I ran for 24 minutes around and around and around the sofa, down the hallway (which is probably about 20 -25 feet long) to the laundry room, back to the family room, around and around and around the sofa the opposite direction, down the hallway.....well, you get the picture. Somehow I managed to keep that up for 2 miles. I was scheduled to run 3 miles, but I figured 2 was acceptable in those conditions.  That was a first for me in training! But I needed to do the celebration run for Mita's end of chemo!

Wednesday, January 19th: managed to get my 5 miles in. Was still cold and somewhat icy outside, but actually it turned out that it worked much better to run on the sidewalks of the side streets where people HADN'T shoveled. (Yay for non-shovelers that day!) because then the snow and ice were crunchy and I could get a good foothold. In places where it had been shoveled it was slick as the slight bit of moisture on the sidewalks had melted, then frozen. But I got in my 5 miles.

Thursday, January 20th: Cold again, and a bit icy. Managed to get my 3 mile run in - although I did a lovely turn coming around the corner right at the beginning, had one of those moments where I was off balance because I hit a slippery patch, then just as I righted myself and breathed a sigh of relief - the next thing I knew I was doing a push-up on the ground. Luckily no harm, and I managed my 3 mile run as I found one street that was fantastically cleared so I just ran up and down that street for the distance.

Saturday, January 22nd: Went to meet the running group (CARA -Chicago Area Runners Association) for my long weekend run. The group I am running with is training for a marathon that is in May, so the distances are a bit off, but still better to run at least some of the distance with others.  The first week we were to have run they cancelled the run because it was too cold (they cancel it when it is below zero either temperature or wind chill). Well, it was hovering right around -1/0/1 that morning.....I got there for the run at 8 and they called the run. A number of people (crazy!) still went running, but I opted to head home. After all, the parking lot was sheer ice (cars were sliding!) and I had no idea what the path would be like. In addition, I figure the people running the group know what they are talking about - why should I decide I know better? So I headed home.

Sunday, January 23rd: Got up again and went to the Lake front at 8 a.m. to meet up with an offshoot of the marathon training group - the "Boston Bound" runners. Why do I not normally run with them you ask? well, because they are QUALIFIERS! But I decided to meet up with them (as motivation and a time deadline for me to get my butt out of bed and out there running). So I did, and within about 1-2 minutes I could barely see them.....yeah - they ran something like 12+ miles in the time I ran 7! But I just had a nice, leisurely run by myself, the paths were clear, the sun was shining, and I was able to focus on running a 12 minute mile (as I  have been  running faster than that often but that is the pace we want to hit for Boston).

I had been having some pain in my feet and the outside of my right ankle, but it hadn't been painful during running. Just more when I got up in the morning, and at other times of the day. Well, for the first time, the pain hit while I was running. I was most concerned about the pain on the outside of my right foot, but then I also had some stabs of pain up the inside of both my right and left ankles. Sigh. I figured that that was my cue to call the injury hotline before it got any worse. I had just recently gotten new shoes as I had been wearing my shoes from the 2005 marathon....they didn't have the mileage on them so I thought they would be OK, but turns out that the rubber breaks down over time. So I had thought that with new shoes maybe I would be all set.....not the case.

So when I came home I called and left a message for the Injury Hotline. And you will have to read the next entry for the rest of that story! (Whether or not I get that entry posted tonight, I am not sure).....

see  - Above is a perfect example of why I am NOT meant to be a blogger. I am not a woman of few words!!!!