Golden Gate Park | Pancakes and Postcards

Race Recap: The New Years Dash 5k/2.87-miler

January 8, 2012 by Courtney 5 Comments

Okay, so the blog took a little tiny bit of a backseat this week while I was busy at work and lost sleep over the fire trauma, but I’m back in action.

First up: a New Years’ Eve Recap, or, more specifically, the New Years Dash 5K recap.

Backstory: this was going to be my first 5K as a runner. Besides one I ran in 2005 that took me 35 minutes. This year, I ran three marathons and zero 5Ks. Basically, I hate running fast and don’t know how to. So I decided I was going to run this 5K to give me a “base” 5K time to work on. My goal was to beat 25 minutes, which would mean running 8 minute miles for 3.1 miles. This would be EXTREMELY hard for me, but I was committed to redlining it and holding on as long as humanly possible. The course scared me, though—it was a mile downhill on JFK and then mile two was straight back uphill. Barf! I decided to try to do a 7:50 first mile so I could do an 8:10 second mile back up the hill. I picked #24 because I wanted a 24 in front of my time.

The race was very casual and even had me laughing at times, super informal but it was no big deal—I was just counting on my Garmin for time. At 9:45AM we were off and started screaming down JFK. I wanted to keep Alyssa in my sight for as long as possible (i.e. not long) and tore through the first mile in 7:22. This is the fastest mile I have run this year without stopping. But then we turned around and plowed right through a wet field. Yes, you read that right. I was slipping all over the place on the wet grass, plus it was uphill—I think I saw a 9:15 pace on my Garmin! Then it was back out to the steep uphill part of the road. I felt like I was dying and mile two beeped 8:41. I had to laugh at that point (even though I didn’t really have any energy to do so). 8:41?!?! In a 5K? Oh well—I figured I could scream around Stow Lake, clock a 7:45 and still go sub-25.

I did pick manage to hold my “I feel like death” pace around Stow Lake and when I was careening down the hill out of Stow Lake I was at 7:45 pace. I had 2.75 miles on the Garmin in just over 22 minutes and I knew I was made. But then the finish line happened! After 2.87 miles! I was so confused—part of me wanted to knock out the final .23 miles but there were people standing around in my way so I just stopped.

Turned out we weren’t supposed to go through that slip n’ slide of a meadow! The course wasn’t clearly marked and someone tore across it so everyone followed suit. So I still have no 5K time but a new 2.87 mile PR of 22:44. The great thing is that even if I had slowed a bit from the speed I had down the finish I would have finished in 24:30, thirty seconds faster than planned. So I plan to enter a new *flat* 5K and push for a sub-24. I think I can do it.

I enjoyed the time after the run with the amazing Katie (2place), Alyssa, Cate, Alisyn, Kabri, and Renee, and got to see Jojo and Erin from SFM as well! Katie poured my mimosa. It was a GENEROUS pour aka a red cup full of champagne with a tiny bit of OJ on top. Then my friend called and said she was already on the bay bridge (she was staying with me for New Years) so I chugged it down and decided to run the two miles home. Note: running 7 miles, including 3 at 5K pace, then chugging a mimosa and running through the Haight with new years beads on and holding a party horn is a really great way to start the NYE festivities.

I am bummed I didn’t get a 5K time but am excited for the next one I do with no huge uphill and no wet meadow. : )

Other New Years festivities included watching my beloved UCLA Bruins play an absolutely atrocious football game, finally meeting the Oscar Meijer Weinermobile, and wearing a very sparkly and very short gold dress.

A week-belated HAPPY NEW YEAR to everybody! This week I’ll finally post about some awesome new desserts I’ve created (very important…), my 2012 resolutions and my race recap from my first race of the year (spoiler alert: 13+ minute average pace. Watch out world.)

Courtney

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Filed Under: fitness Tagged With: 5K, friends, goals, Golden Gate Park, holidays, race recap, races, San Francisco, speedwork, stow lake

Rediscovering My Runner’s High

October 30, 2011 by Courtney 19 Comments

It’s been a while since I felt a true runner’s high. And not for lack of running… I’ve been logging my miles since the SF Marathon, with these three months seeing a few hundred miles run as well as three half marathons raced and one spectated while running farther than the course distance. But something has just been missing. That feeling where everything clicks.

I fell in love with running during my first marathon training cycle somewhere after 11 miles. I realized that no matter what I tend to hate the first 5 miles of a run. Sad but true. Hence my twitter headline saying I need 10K to warm up. I really do! There was something about coming back from a 16, 18, or 20+ mile run totally wasted but also kind of floating on endorphins. I finally found that again today!

I did NOT want to wake up at 7 this morning but after hitting snooze til 7:30, seeing everyone’s tweets about the Marine Corps Marathon dragged me out of bed. There was a 4-mile race happening on the Great Highway that Cate and Alyssa would be at, so I had to make it down. I got dressed and then got on my way. The only problem was that there was a 4-mile run for me to just GET to the race! Luckily it was running DOWN MLK which is SO. MUCH. EASIER. I was trying to take it really slow and somewhat succeeded.

4 mi run to race: 35:43

I got down there and connected with Cate and family. I love DSE races. So chill and such a fun environment. I need to commit to getting to know a lot of these people!

When the race started we started in the back since they had the baby stroller. Unfortunately for everyone in front of us, Cate and Mike are faster than the majority of the crowd even when pushing baby! I hung with them for the first 1.5 mile or so and then they hightailed it out of there, picking off people one by one. Alyssa managed to sprint her fast feet up to catch up with us and I stayed with her til right around the turnaround and then I dropped back. I was not feeling great and just out to have fun and try to survive 12-13 mi for the day. I took a 30 second walking break to take off my long sleeve shirt (oops) which meant readjusting iPod and Garmin. Then I finished out by counting the alphabet backwards as I passed the Sunset streets (Santiago… Rivera… Pacheco…)

I kept in minimal effort mode because I knew I still had miles in front of me, but it was fun to participate!

Mile 1: 9:2X (weaving with stroller)
Mile 2: 8:26
Mile 3: 8:53 (walk break)
Mile 4 kind of: 7:45 (it was only 0.95 mile)

So I’ve got a new 3.95M PR of 34:32 despite the walking and slowness. Woot!

After that, I hung out and dawdled and filled my water bottle and fueled up with 3 mini chocolate chip cookies. I REALLY needed the calories after running 8 miles on only one graham cracker. I’m a big breakfast before long run person, but I got out of bed only 30 minutes before I had to run so it didn’t happen.

After that, I just wanted to get a ride HOME! I was tired and over the running thing. However, I knew that Kristine and Alyssa were doing laps at Stow Lake and I hadn’t seen Kristine since the Giant Race so I decided I’d make the trudge over to Stow Lake to see them. Two slow miles UP MLK (ugh) and I was there. One break for this:

I was feeling okay and figured I’d do one lap with them and then head home for 13 for the day, keeping with my goal of running at least 13.1 miles per weekend even though I’m not training for anything.

Imagine my surprise when I saw Layla and Karin there as well! This is when my day totally turned around. We headed out together around Stow Lake. And then I had so much fun catching up with Kristine and chatting with the others that I ended up running 3. At that point I decided I should probably run another half lap so then with my 2 miles home it would make 16 miles for the day.

Total: 16 miles/2:26, 9:07 pace

From miles 10 to 16, I felt better every mile. My legs got looser and wanted to run faster than they were. While I had wanted to walk so much between miles 4-8 (in a “race”!), I didn’t even want to stop. I almost headed back into the park for another 2 to make it 18 for the day, but then I realized I haven’t hit 15+ in three months, so why risk it when my knee was bothering me a bit anyway. My last mile I was just so happy, because I remembered why I love to run. It’s that feeling, ten miles in, with no clock ticking to stress me out, with friends nearby to support, with nowhere to be or go, the only goal just to move and enjoy running for running’s sake.

Today was awesome. I loved this run and it reminded me that I CAN run despite my confidence issues as of late and that I can rock a distance run even if I’ll never be speedy. That doesn’t mean I can’t love it.

When I got home, I was famished. I had only had those three cookies which seemed like a lot at the time (maybe 200 calories?) but after 16+ miles on just those calories and the graham cracker I was dying. I knew exactly how to get delicious and replenishing fuel into me FAST:

One cup chocolate milk + one frozen banana + one spoon PB. Everything you need. And amazing.

After a good bit of dawdling and lounging around in my bathrobe (TMI?), I jumped on my bike to meet Alyssa at Quickly for some really (not) nutritious and very much needed post-run fuel. (She did 20 and kicked ASS.) I had a lovely bike ride over to the Richmond—really getting the hang out riding in traffic. Still scary but I MUST attempt a ride to work this week—I’m thinking Tuesday.

We got Oreo Snows with large tapioca and fries (curly for her, sweet potato for me). It was absolutely just what the doctor ordered.

After some time lounging around the wave of post run tiredness hit me HARD. I had wanted to hike up Twin Peaks, but a 16 mile run + bike ride +strenuous hike seemed a little bit much for the one day. But all told, this was the absolute perfect Sunday.

I’ve got a busy week in front of me which will culminate in the FOODBUZZ FESTIVAL next weekend! I am seriously excited for that. I’ve got a few goals for the week:

Two good weight training sessions
Four runs
No junk food at the office. Fo realz this time.
GO TO BED BEFORE 11. I was up til 1-2am every night last week (college flashback!) and I piad for it. Sleep matters!
BUY A DIGITAL CAMERA!!! I need recommendations stat. Anyone?? Something that is purse-able if not pocket-able, that I can carry around easily, not super complicated, Please advise if you have any recommendations!

Hope you all had a WONDERFUL weekend!

Courtney

What do you use to take pictures? Do you have any camera recs for me?

Filed Under: fitness Tagged With: bloggers, DSE, fries, Golden Gate Park, great highway, long runs, ocean beach, quickly, race recap, running, smoothie, stow lake, unhealthy goodness

Nike Women’s (Half…) Marathon Race Recap!

October 17, 2011 by Courtney 33 Comments

Half Marathon #4 in the books and tiffany bling to boot!

Yesterday I woke up at 4:30AM to run the Nike Women’s Marathon. I had a fun sleepover at Alyssa’s house with RadRunner and a bunch of cute cats and when the alarm went off a bit too early we were out of bed and rarin’ to go.

Our outfit for the day was inspired by Audrey—makeshift LBDs (lulu running skirts for the win!), pearls, sparkly headband, sunglasses… and we totally rocked it.

We hopped on the 38 bus at 5:45ish to head down to Union Square (who knew it ran around the clock? Not me!) The bus was chock full of runners and we arrived downtown around 6:20…

To UTTER CHAOS. Words cannot describe the ridiculousness that was Union Square at 6AM on a Sunday morning. How many people were there? 25,000? 30,000? Lord knows but think mosh pit at a concert. Ohhhhh my gosh. I chose not to let my friends know that I am an extremely claustrophobic person and occasionally panic.

Somehow I survived but we could not even get CLOSE to the start of the race! I can say unequivocally that if I ever run this race again I will start right behind the elites. The bag check was in horrible spots so people were trying to get to those while others were trying to get to their corrals (which are self-selected and no one seems to know where they should be). We gave up and hung out in the 10 or 11 minute corral and occupied ourselves with “helping” our Garmins find signal.

And then we were off!

And by off I mean, it took us ELEVEN MINUTES to cross the start line. And THAT is how you know it might be a rough run! It was simply madness. The first few miles we were mostly running on sidewalks because there was simply no room to go. I clocked .13 over on the first mile or something like that from all the ridiculous weaving.

We had this goal of around 2 hours for the race. Alyssa was down for whatever (the speedster would have no prob!), Erica wanted to go for it and I was pretty ambivalent about the pace. I think we realized pretty quickly though that it wasn’t going to happen OR, more likely, a goal time would only happen at the expense of having fun. Trying to run this course fast would be a really frustrating and angering experience. Luckily, we were having a great time.

The course headed out of union square, along the Embarcadero, up to Ghiradelli Square, back down and over Fort Mason, and then through the Marina a la SFM. The Fort Mason hill didn’t even seem hard because we couldn’t even run it! I felt like I was in a permanent state of hot-stepping around people or wanting to play Red Rover (or maybe human bowling…) with all the walkers in front of us. Oops.

Finally we got to the real thing: the hill up to the base of the Golden Gate. I don’t think we walked at all on this hill, or if we did I forgot. But again, we were going super slow due to the crowds. It was still a HARD hill though!

Around this time (about mile 6) I started getting a little dizzy. I never seem to drink enough in the first 5 miles of races (oh there’s an aid station, it’s crowded, don’t wanna stop, peace!) and then I spend the rest of the race trying to get out of dehydration. Happened here but then I started stopping at the aid stations for water or Gatorade.

After we got up to the top of the first big hill we got to bomb down Lincoln with a great downhill. And by bomb I mean, “run way slower than we could have because there are too many people in the way.”

Somewhere in there around mile 8 I got to see Katie (with poster AND cowbell!), Dennis, Page and Jess which was rad! It was something to look forward to for a few miles before that.

Following that we had another big uphill in Seacliff, then downhill to the avenues. And then we took a right up Clement Street.

Oh my lord. I was so angry on this hill. Well, angry isn’t the right word. I just had no idea it was there and it was SO HARD! I couldn’t even tell when it was going to end. I vaguely remember turning to Alyssa or just nodding and whimpering, “is it almost over?” Apparently hills are not my strongest suit.

Soon it was and we got to run down past the Cliff House and down to the Great Highway. So close!

We took a left onto JFK for our last hill. I was sick of the hills at this point and my knees were tired from running downhill (haven’t done a lot of that lately). I felt pretty winded running up that one but so glad that we were almost done.

I felt better hydration wise considering the last few stops I was taking 2 cups of Gatorade and 2 cups of water and downing all 4 in the 30 seconds ish we were in the water stop areas. Seriously. I was SO HAPPY they served Gatorade on the course and also gave out a few chews (like fruit snacks) that were great! I had two of those gummies (30 calories each) and a bunch of Gatorade and I was fine. I got in more than enough calories with the Gatorade and didn’t need to Gu which I was happy about. I always get a side stitch when I take gels.

Finally we turned right to make the half turnaround. I WAS SO HAPPY. I never would want to run this full marathon, I don’t think. Ow!

Then we had a nice downhill on MLK and soon we were back on the Great Highway and crossing the finish line in 2:10. NECKLACE TIME!

At which point it was time for posing for pictures and changing out of sopping wet sports bras.

This was an interesting race! I will say the following things about it:

1) First and most importantly, I had a GREAT TIME. I didn’t listen to my iPod at all the whole day, the pace was slow enough that I could talk easily (except for up a few of those hills!), and the energy was awesome! Way better than any of the other races I have done. And the race went by SO FAST!!! I was hardly ever looking at my Garmin and every time I did I was surprised we were almost done.

2) This course is no joke! Holy moly. Those hills in the Presidio and the Richmond are NOT messing around. We ran a 2:10 as a “fun” pace—not killing ourselves trying to cut people off, not being able to run at all at some points because of crowds, walking through water stops to rehydrate… but honestly, I don’t think I could sub-2 on this course!!! I have to work for my sub-2s and this course means business.

3) This is not a race for people who don’t like crowds. The whole start, finish, and a lot of the actual race in the middle is a big cluster.

4) This is not a runner’s race. If you show up here looking for a manageable group of fellow runners who understand course etiquette and how to behave in a race, from walking on the side to starting in correct corrals, you will HATE this race.

5) With that being said… this race is an amazing experience in terms of just soaking in the joy of being part of something with a bajillion other people. Seeing so many people’s excitement over finishing their first half or full marathon, and especially the thousands of people who raised money for an amazing cause (Team in Training), was really inspiring to me.

Afterwards, I got to meet up with some fellow runners and enjoy swapping Nike war stories over a $16 veggie burger at the Beach Chalet. Good thing it was freaking delicious but damn!

It was great to see so many amazing runners who were also out there, especially Jana who did the full (and Karin who was very much missed). Full marathon! Amazing.

And I got to “meet” Ellie!

Sure, the crowds were stressful, sure, the organization was bad, sure, people stop walking right in front of you, etc. But I think it’s also clear to me that this is a pretty special event and despite the ridiculousness I had a great time. Thanks to A and E for being my running buddies and putting up with me, and for everyone else who I am so blessed to call a running friend Smile

Time for bed! Happy Monday all!

Courtney

What was the highlight of your weekend?

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Filed Under: fitness Tagged With: bay area, beach chalet, bloggers, friends, Golden Gate Park, half marathon, nike, NWM, presidio, race recap, runners, running, running bloggers, tiffany, union square

I Got My Booty Camped… I Mean, Kicked!

August 30, 2011 by Courtney 12 Comments

8384ef68c2ce6913_Alavie-Fitness-9.preview.jpg

Today was my first day of bootcamp! You may recall that I mentioned signing up for a bootcamp back in July through a Bloomspot deal. It was scheduled to start the day after the SF Marathon (HA!) and run through last Friday, but the week of the marathon I realized I’d be traveling two solid weeks out of the month, so I asked to be switched to this month. Success! And then I forgot about it.

I am doing a bootcamp with AlaVie Fitness and I should be going 4-5x a week for these for weeks when I’m in town (two upcoming trips for work). I’ll comment more about my experience with the camp when it’s been a little bit longer!

This weekend was a bit tiring with The Giant Race and a lot of other errands and general confusion. Yesterday was a 17-hour day at the office, but “the office” also involved taking one of our clients out to the Giants game, so I suppose it could have been worse. Though we did get creamed.

When I barely slept (ugh… lights on, in regular clothes on top of bed, hitting snooze button for hours telling myself I’d “get up and work”) for a couple hours, my alarm at 5:15 was NOT welcome! The bootcamp starts at 6AM and meets in Golden Gate Park anywhere from 0.7 to 1.7 miles from my house.

This means leaving my house at 5:45 and jogging right after waking up with two six-pound dumbbells and a yoga mat on my back. And outside looked kinda like this.

(Above picture was taken several minutes after arriving at, and starting, the class AND jogging there in the first place. Creepster!)

The bootcamp was pretty fun! It was a mix of jogging around, jumping over little hurdles, doing lunges and squats, walking with weights, and the like. I definitely broke a sweat but never felt my heart rate raise that high. It never got boring, though I kinda wished there was a boombox or what I was wearing my iPod or that someone would talk to me or something.

But guess what? It’s not even tomorrow yet and my booty is SORE!

When I got really into running I TOTALLY cut my lower body workouts—because I didn’t want to be too sore to run! And I can see how stupid that is. I hadn’t done squats and lunges like that in a while and I am DEFINITELY feeling it. Perhaps this camp will be a good experience for me! It’s going to make running harder (though I suppose I can often get in a few miles at 7a after the bootcamp if I don’t have to be at work super early) but maybe that’s good. I’m not signed up for any races until Nike in October and I’m just going to do the half—so maybe I spend the next four weeks working on muscle building, weight loss, and more shorter, quicker workouts and then build the distance back up in prep for CIM or whatever my next long race is.

At least I have discovered the joy of frozen banana, almond milk, PB, cinnamon, and vanilla for dinner pre-bootcamp:

And Specialty’s “PB and Stuff” for dinner pre-bootcamp #2. I see a theme here.

Does this ever happen to you? Does one kind of fitness make you neglect another one? I’m realizing how much so much of my body has weakened since I started focusing more on running! Maybe it’ll be good to not worry about getting 30-35 miles a week in and just try to get stronger overall. And maybe it’s the kick-start my metabolism needs.

Goodnight everyone!

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Filed Under: fitness Tagged With: boot camp, Fitness, Golden Gate Park, peanut butter, smoothie

Weekend Wrap-Up: GrubWithUs, Harry and AIDS Walk SF

July 17, 2011 by Courtney 20 Comments

What a week(end).

Last week was crazy stressful, mostly because of work. I logged pretty ridiculous hours and then was trying to do other stuff at the same time and it didn’t work out so well. And I did NOT get a chance to relax this weekend. But it’s okay because it was mostly fun things! Friday I got to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time: attend a GrubWithUs dinner!

GrubWithUs is a company that organizes group dinners for 8 people, usually. You sign up on grubwithus.com and your meal price (usually between $20-30) includes all the food, tax, and gratituity, so once you get there you only have to pay for booze (separate checks). Then you just show up and meet 7 other interesting people! I’ve been wanting to go for a while and finally got the chance. I was especially excited because it was at one of my favorite restaurants in the city: Firenze by Night in the adorable neighborhood of North Beach (little Italy).

I got there a few minutes early so I wandered into a candy shop across the street (oops). Everyone was SO nice who worked there and you could taste their fudge (delectable) and sample the salt water taffies for free! My kind of place. I bought $3 worth of candy on impulse including a really huge roll of Smarties I’m saving for a special time.

And I got free caramel corn with purchase. Ridiculous. Not the best place to go for my new lose-5-pounds resolution, but hey, it’s free.

Then I headed over to the restaurant for dinner. I had a great time! There were a few guys there who worked in the tech/capital world (that’s what most people are at these things in San Francisco, young tech people—such as myself!), a PhD student from Stanford, an engineer from Chile, and a man who worked at UCSF. I love meeting new people, and it’s really cool to do so in such an environment. And it didn’t help that the food was DELICIOUS.

(UGLY AND BLURRY IPHONE PICTURE… I am aware this does not look yummy at all. Pic below is from the first time I went)

This place has the best gnocchi I have ever had. Literally melts in your mouth. And the fish of the day was ridiculous. I cannot even explain it, it was that good. When people say things like that on blogs I usually roll my eyes, but no, this really was THAT good. And the best part was I got to take home a bunch of leftovers so I’ve enjoyed that fish again on Saturday and now Sunday. Triple win.

All together it was a really fun meal and I hope I can sign up for another GrubWithUs dinner soon! You should definitely check it out if you’re in SF, LA, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Atlanta, or DC.

Also, can I just say that a nice Friday evening dinner out, great food, sparkling conversation, no booze, and home and in bed in jammies by 10:30PM tired with a full belly is the BEST way to spend a Friday?! Maybe I’m old, but man. That wins now, every time.

Saturday came and I planned to run 16 miles. It was my last real run before SFMarathon. Basically, I intended to head out super early which didn’t happen, but I tried my best. I ended up getting stuck in cold and wet for most of the time. That’s really the only way to describe it. The bridge was foggy but once I was on it it was legit raining and then by the time I made it to the other side this was the view of downtown SF.

Beautiful, huh? Brrr. Then, for the THIRD time, I tried to follow the SFM course through the Presidio (because I know that is going to be the hardest part, at least for me) and I got lost! I cannot figure out how to get to Lincoln Boulevard from the pedestrian side of the GG bridge! So my entire plan got foiled and I ended up running a kinda sucky route and only doing 14 miles at a 10:30 something pace so it was a WEAK and not fun run but hey, you’re always going to have days like this and I’d rather get them out of the way now so I can hopefully actually finish SFM!

Saturday I had a meeting for AIDS Walk SF (I was a “key volunteer”) and then got on a bus downtown to the Metreon for… Harry! (source)

I saw it with a friend in IMAX/3D (except I can’t really see the 3D part of it) and it was AMAZING. I had heard all good things and I couldn’t believe how much I loved it. I cried so much it was ridiculous. I actually appreciated having the unwieldy 3D glasses because it hid the downpour of tears running down my face. It was a very emotional movie and I’m already thinking about when I can see it again.

Sunday (today) I was up at 5:30am for the AIDS Walk! One of my friends is on the committee for it so I offered to volunteer. It’s a cause near and dear to my heart; as many of you know I spent the last 2+ years doing AIDS work in Africa. I ended up sitting on a street corner for about six hours and working with a park ranger and other volunteers to frequently stop the walk to let the cars go through (we were on the only open road in GG Park). I took NO pictures of the mass of walkers (they predicted 25,000) because it was a pretty stressful job. Most people were super nice, but others got angry at me when I asked them very nicely to wait for a minute so we could clear out the traffic! People kept grumbling that if they had to stop walking for a minute they wouldn’t be able to go again. I didn’t know how to react to that, but needless to say, the time went by pretty fast. It was cool to be a part of the event and brought me back hardcore to my UCLA days of being an RA (all the chatter on the radio!) and on the steering committee of a huge HIV/AIDS fundraising event called Dance Marathon. It was a good time though, but I was very ready to move on from that corner once it was over Smile

Home and planning out the ridiculousness of the week ahead—work, food, workouts, runs, SLEEP, blog—and trying to get in a little mini-workout before I go out to dinner tonight. I really want to take a nap. Very, very bad. Fun weekends are great, but not when they leave me saying at the end, “man, I need a weekend.” Smile Though next one looks pretty open, so hopefully I can lay low.

Hope everyone had a WONDERFUL weekend!

Courtney

What was the best part of your weekend?

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Filed Under: Musings, Pancakes (Food) Tagged With: AIDS Walk, fun, Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, Grubwithus, Harry Potter, italian, marathon training, restaurant, running, San Francisco, San Francisco Marathon, SF, unhealthy goodness

Laid Up

June 20, 2011 by Courtney 21 Comments

First of all, Happy (belated) Father’s Day to my amazing father! Thanks for being the absolute best daddy I could ever have asked for. I’ll always be daddy’s little girl

This weekend was great. I had baking book club yesterday and met two awesome bloggers/new friends and made some awesome lava cake. I’ll update on that later. I also had a great afternoon with my family in San Francisco. My parents drove in from the Sacramento area, picking up my sis from Berkeley on the way. I was already out and about to go to church, so I picked up some pastries for my parents at Tartine (SF’s most famous bakery, and rightfully slow!) to kill some time.

Once my family got into town, they met me at Spork in the Mission for brunch.

We were all pretty hungry by then. We split some coffee cake as a starter and then I got the Dirty Birdy (three-egg scramble with mushrooms, cheese, cherry tomatoes, and homefries mixed in and with avocado instead of bacon).

Hit the spot. Not excellent service, but decent food. I was hungry when I entered and left full. Thus, success.

But can we just TALK about the cookies that came with the bill???

We had the rare joy of having a WARM day in SF today. It never really happens. I left my house at 9:50 and was wiping sweat off my lip by 9:55. Okay, I was climbing a hill, but STILL. It was nice! We went over to Golden Gate Park to walk around a little. I usually always just run through GGP and never really meander, so it was fun, and my family being there made it 100x better.

Family time continued at Costco. I love Costco. I have a love affair in my heart going on with Costco. Let me just say. But I don’t love Costco more than I love my family… and my daddy. Happy Fathers’ Day! Thanks for making the drive. : )

The only unhappy part of my weekend: I’m injured. For the first time since I started marathon training the first week of January, I have an injury that is preventing me from running. I’ve had a ton of soreness, growing pains, tweaks, pinches, etc. along the course of the last six months, but nothing ever made me stop a run early less than voluntarily. Last week after I ran 16 miles in preparation for the SF Marathon (which I’m hoping to run in July) I was telling my mom I felt lucky because with each long run during round 1 something ALWAYS hurt, but then it’d go away, and my last few long runs here, nothing has really hurt and I felt really lucky. Open mouth, insert foot.

I ran six miles on Thursday morning and it was a great run. I felt good and was in an awesome mood since it was warm in SF at 6:30am which never happens. I ran the six, jumped in the shower, then jumped on the bus to make my 30-plus minute bus commute down to Market Street.

Then, when I stood to get off the bus, I almost fell over. I had shooting pain in my inner right thigh. It’s not quite my groin, not quite my quad, but something in the inner thigh kind of in about the middle of the thigh between the groin and knee. I had no idea what it was but it HURT. I shuffled the five blocks to my office and spent the next two days walking quite gingerly. I felt like it would get better. I tried to stretch but it didn’t work. I felt like I just had some sort of a tweak.

Saturday, I was supposed to run 18 miles. I got up and still felt bad. But I’ve run out a lot of tweaks in the first 5-10 minutes of a run, so I fueled up with awesome pancakes… and then went out to give it a shot.

I ran one mile. Every step hurt. I thought it’d get better but it just didn’t. So I did what I knew I needed to do. I limped home.

It’s been another two full days and it hasn’t gotten better. Walking is mildly uncomfortable. Stretching doesn’t help and I cannot isolate the area no matter what I try. I did the elliptical yesterday with no pain and the stationary bike today with no pain, but putting all my weight on my right foot doesn’t work. I tried a mock jump-rope, and I couldn’t do it. I cannot put my full weight, with any impact, on my right leg.

This terrifies me. Especially because I don’t know what the injury is or how to make it better. Discounting my one mile, I now have taken FOUR days off running, it will probably turn into a week… or more? And who knows how it’s going to get better?

I need to not worry about this too much. It’s going to be okay. This week I will try to figure out what is wrong with it this week and still try to work my butt off at the gym to stay in shape.

But how do I make it better?

I’m really lucky to have run about 600 miles this year without ever getting laid up, and I’m lucky that I have six weeks til the SF race so that even if I take a week off now, I can likely get back. But what scares me is that it still solidly hurts FOUR FULL DAYS LATER and that I have no idea what’s wrong with it. The pain spread down my leg to my foot today so I’m thinking it’s my sciatic nerve. I’m going to try to get an appointment with a doctor tomorrow.

Happy thoughts.

Injuries can be good because they give you perspective. Last week I was not excited about running. Yesterday walking through GGP I wanted to trip the three billion runners who were floating past me out of sheer jealousy, because I knew I couldn’t do that right now. When I can run again–hopefully soon–I’ll be so happy to be able to run.

Have you ever had an injury? How do you deal with it/stay in shape?

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