Life Kicked Me Around a Little, but I’m Back and I’ll Never Quit Fighting

Hello, friends!

I’ve been away for a long time, but so much has happened in that time and I’m finally inspired to write again, so I’m back to share it all with you and see what has been happening in your lives!

To recap the past 10 months of my life, a lot of which I’ll further explore in (near) future posts:

1. My grandfather, with whom I was very close, passed away last November. It was just a couple of weeks after I ran what has become my most recent half marathon as of this posting. He was 88 years strong and I was blessed to be able to speak with him in person just a couple of weeks before his passing – so overall I’m at peace with it, but it affected me and my relationship with running in ways I didn’t fully understand and come to terms with until very recently.
2. Six months ago, I left behind Corporate America and the auditing/accounting professions and am now very happily employed as an analyst at a small, 4-year old company that focuses on news and research for the business/economic aspect of the legal cannabis markets in the U.S. How’s that for a change?? It’s also a work from home position, which has allowed me to really make my mental and physical well-being a true priority.
3. I stopped running for six months, gained 10 pounds, and slipped back into depression. I struggled and wallowed in it for a while, but finally sought some help. Out of that has come a lot of new information – in some cases, I have achieved a better understanding of myself and my mental health challenges, and in other instances, more information has only led to further questions and research. The biggest revelations are a tentative diagnosis of bipolar depression with rapid cycling (I’ll elaborate in a future post) and some fascinating things I have even more recently learned about a phenomenon called “precocious puberty” and how it may have played a role in all of my mental health issues.
4. After experimenting with vegetarianism for about 8 or 9 months, I made the decision to re-incorporate meat back into my diet. However, the frequency with which I consume it and the types of meat I now select have changed drastically. I still eat vegetarian meals about 60% to 75% of the time currently.
5. I re-kindled my relationship with running after having a profound insight that it really is key to my mental well-being. But guess what? Not running for six months meant I really had to start small and make very slow, but steady progress. This involved a combination of things such as truly embracing walk breaks, shifting my focus from distance to duration (for now), taking the time to become aware of and improve my posture, and learning to love running purely for its own sake again.

This is an extremely abridged version of everything I have experienced and learned in the past 10 months, all of which I’ll fully explore here over the coming weeks and months. In the interim, I’m just happy to be back participating in the community and reading about your life experiences.

Stay happy!

Becky

Uphill

None of us likes to travel a road with potholes, one that’s always going uphill.

But, if we get our wish, and all troublesome experiences ceased, it might be the worst thing that could happen.

Life isn’t having it made, it’s getting it made.

Each task in our life requires an effort of will, and with each event, something within you grows and is strengthened.

“Does the road wind up-hill all the way?

Yes, to the very end.”

Race Recap: Highlands Ranch Backcountry Wilderness Half Marathon

Last Saturday I ran my second half marathon since starting running about 14 months ago, proving to myself that I’m making a lot of progress and that crossing the finish line of that first half marathon wasn’t a fluke!

The distance was way less intimidating this time around and I was a lot more prepared.  That’s not to say I didn’t have butterflies last Saturday morning and think to myself, as I stood in the kitchen all dressed and ready to go, “why exactly do I do this again?”

I got in several 9 and 10 mile runs this training cycle and peaked with one 11 mile run two weeks before the race.  For my last half, I did one single 9 mile run as my longest distance prior to the race, so the addition of 4.1 miles on race day was a huge physical and mental challenge, whereas now I’ve been doing a lot of trail running and have become quite accustomed to and comfortable with 2.5+ hour runs.  I was nervous before the race last weekend, but I knew I was prepared.

This was a trail race – not a true hard core mountainous race with 2,000+ feet of elevation gains and losses, streams, wildlife, etc., but this was 95% dirt, about 50% single track, and did have some leg trashing hill climbs and descents.  I had run on part of the course a handful of times leading up to the race to train, but now this area and trail system is definitely one of my go-to spots here in the Denver metro area.  You have a spectacular view of the whole Front Range for pretty much the entire time, it’s really quite lovely.

This was my first race without music, and it was a totally different experience.  I have been doing most of my trail/mountain runs sans music, but I decided given the nature of the course to forego music for the race, and honestly I will be doing that again.  Not only is it a more “pure” running experience – you hear each breath and footfall, tuning you into your own body more – but I had a totally different and enjoyable experience with my fellow runners!  I had several conversations during the race, I overheard other groups’ conversations, I spoke more with/to the volunteers – I was tuned in.  It was really enjoyable.  I’m an introvert who is always more comfortable alone and with my own thoughts in a crowd, but this was a worthwhile and cool experience.  I highly recommend it.

About a month ago, I scored an amazing deal on a pair of New Balance MT1210’s and they are great!  They are a perfect dirt/trail running shoe and I think I’m permanently switching back to New Balance for all of my running shoes.  That’s what I was running in before my injury and running in a pair again has just reminded me how well they fit and suit my physiology.  I’ll finish out the life in my Brooks Addiction 11s, but then I’m switching back to NB for trail and road shoes.

The weather was glorious and the race went well.  I fueled and hydrated perfectly, felt great the whole time, and just thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience.  After crossing the finish line and getting my medal, I got my free beer from Grist Brewery and indulged in a 10 minute session with some Normatec Recovery boots.  Every race should end like this!

My official time was 2:36:45, which considering the terrain, I was quite pleased with.  I’m obviously not a fast runner and I’ll never be one of those ripped women at the front of the pack clocking 6-minute miles uphill, but dammit, I can conquer this distance like a champ and feel good doing it!

Neal and I treated ourselves to sushi later that night.  It was the first time I’ve broken my vegetarianism since I started that about 3.5 months ago, and it was delicious!  It was one meal though and as much as I enjoyed it, I have been right back to the veggies since then.  I had really been craving fish (I still haven’t missed chicken, turkey, pork, or beef) and so I decided to pay attention to my body and eat fish without guilt.  A craving like that probably means there’s something lacking in my vegetarian diet, which I will explore over the coming weeks, but it was another epiphany in my journey into vegetarianism that I will be meat-free 99% of the time because I really do like it and feel better, but if I want fish a couple times a year, that’s perfectly okay.  This may also still just be a stop on the way to 100% vegetarianism, which is okay too.

I am proud of myself.  I felt so good the rest of that day – that high is just unlike any other.  It’s a lot of work to chase it, but man, is it worth it.  That grin on my face in the chair, holding my medal and beer – THAT is why I do this.  I reveled in that feeling for that moment.  Life was perfect for another brief instant.

Becky

This Is My Therapy

Last week, the findings of a decades-long study on the effects of physical activity on depression over the course of an individual’s life from the ages of 23-50 were published online by JAMA Psychiatry.  The findings of this study were pretty widely distributed and referenced in the days thereafter.  My Zite reader suddenly filled up with all kind of articles on the topic, specifically referencing this study.  Click here and here for two good recaps.

About a week prior to these study findings being released, I watched this video of Rob Krar opening up about his struggles with depression.  This video in particular gained a lot of exposure in the running community (and here on WordPress) and I recommend giving it a view when you have seven and a half minutes to spare.

I have fought a long battle with depression and its ugly effects.  I’m in a much better place with it now than I was from the age of about 14 to 26, but I have come to realize that it never fully goes away and one is never “cured” of depression.  I am managing my depression these days, and it’s been at least a year since it was debilitating enough to interfere with my job, family, or friends.  However, the tricky (and frankly, downright terrifying) aspect of depression is that even if you’re managing it relatively well at any given point, it’s still a constant, daily battle of eternal vigilance to keep the darkness at bay.  I still exhaust a significant amount of mental energy working to keep that cloud from rolling in.

Even currently, I occasionally have brief periods of 1-3 days where life just seems so overwhelming and every little task is infinitely more difficult.  The most basic and brief social interactions become laborious, painful, and anxiety-inducing; laundry and dishes seem like unachievable tasks; dragging out of bed by 8 AM, much less my normal 6, is almost impossible.  The walls start to close in and if I don’t take steps to halt this onslaught within a matter of days, there could very easily be a point of no return.  Robin Williams’ suicide this summer was particularly poignant because I felt the world was witnessing exactly what I’m describing.  He was 63 years old and managed to keep that darkness at bay every day for decades, until the day he couldn’t.  That is what scares me – everything can be relatively under control until one day when it just isn’t.

Why do I mention all of this?  I have come to believe exercise, especially running and particularly endurance running, is a very powerful tool in combating depression and associated disorders such as anxiety.  Ever hear of Team RWB?  It’s a military veteran organization that relies on the science of physical activity’s effects on depression and PTSD to help our service men and women re-integrate with their families, lives, and society.

I personally have discovered that running is my anti-depressant.  I have been more happy, level-headed, motivated, energetic, and even-keeled since I started running over a year ago than I have ever been at any other time in my life.  Particularly within the past two months since (mostly) recovering from my tibial stress issues in my left leg and have become increasingly interested in and pursuing endurance running.  The highlight of my week has become 2+ hour runs on Saturday morning on trails.  Not only do I get fresh air, sunshine on my face, meditate by focusing on every breath and footfall, but I reach that place of physical suffering.

Not suffering like a broken bone, burn, etc., but the kind of suffering that I suspect is really more mental than actually physical.  No doubt running for that length of time or longer pushes your body in ways shorter runs or a spin class never could, but it’s really reaching that point where your mind is screaming – stop!  What the hell are we doing??  Only crazy people run this long/far!  These legs can’t carry you any farther! – and yet pushing through.  Pushing through until at some point, it really is over, and you realize later that there was no room in your head for the dark thoughts.  Your mind was cleared, the chatter stopped, the world made sense, you felt at peace, you were in the moment…you were happy.  Content.  Fulfilled.

I run to literally chase that place.  Because the alternative is no longer acceptable.  This is my therapy.

Run well, friends.

Becky

Race Recap: Denver Hot Chocolate 15K

Last Sunday, I ran my first race since my injury over 4 months ago and all things considered, it went really well!  I ran the 15K distance in the Denver Hot Chocolate 5K/15K on October 5th and am happy to report that my leg didn’t flare up or give me any issues!  It was an absolutely perfect Denver day and the perfect conditions for running – I felt exhilarated the whole time to just be running.  I felt like I was finally back!

I laid out all of my gear the night before because it was going to be a pretty early morning with a 4:30 AM wake up call.

The hoodie came with the race entry and then I bought the long sleeve purple shirt at the race expo.  The hoodie is really nice and I will definitely get some good use out of that in the upcoming winter months of running.  I made a last minute decision the next morning to just wear the long sleeve shirt and leave my hoodie behind because it just wasn’t cold enough to bother with it, gear check it, etc.

I was standing at the lightrail station near my house by 5:35 AM to catch the train downtown.  For $8 and not having to deal with traffic downtown for the race, this is definitely the way to go.

I was downtown at the race site by about 6:20.  The 15K wasn’t scheduled to start until 7:50, so I definitely had plenty of time, which is better than cutting it close and barely getting there in time.  I was loving the early morning light on the urban Denver landscape and got a few really beautiful pictures.

The 5K was at 7 (I know, a lot of us were kind of scratching our heads on that one too – why the 5K first??  If anyone has any official insight on why they do that a lot of the time, I would actually be very interested in understanding), so I lined up to watch that get started and then walked over to the finish line to see the first finishers coming in just under 17 minutes!  The first two people to finish were a boy and a girl who I later found out are siblings – how cool??

I milled around a little bit more, made some small talk with people, and then got lined up in my starting corral at about 7:40.

I was in the third corral, so I didn’t cross the start line until about 7:54, but then I was off!  I haven’t run a race downtown prior to this before, so while certainly not my favorite setting, an urban run did have its charms and intrigues.

I felt really strong for the first 5K, still good overall for the 10K plus a little, but struggled a touch with the last two miles or so.  I could tell a difference from getting back into strength training, so I was encouraged by that, but this was by far the most I have run on a hard surface since my injury, and my joints were not being shy about letting me know that!  I finished strong though and my official time was 1:39:28.

The finishers medal was pretty cool and we also got a finishers mug.  I was disappointed with the mug because I thought it was going to be a real, oversized porcelain mug, but it was just a cheap plastic mug filled with junk food, ha.  I ate the banana and drank some of the hot chocolate, but ended up throwing most of it away because I didn’t feel like filling up on all of those simple processed sugars.  Kind of a disappointment, but oh well.

I hung around for a short while in Civic Center Park, just taking in the scenery, people watching, and relishing in what was just a solid run overall and a great way to come back from an injury.  I won’t jump to sign up for this race again in the future, mostly just because of the setting, but I did really enjoy the 15K distance, so that may be what tempts me again in the future.  I’m also going to seek out other races at this distance because it is the perfect challenge between the 10K and half marathon.

Gotta love these gorgeous autumn Denver days – could this be any more perfect??

Now I’m 4 weeks out from my trail half marathon and looking forward to a completely different race experience coming up with that.

Happy Saturday!

Becky

UPDATE: I have one pretty big gripe about this race that most of you probably won’t be able to relate to.  I am not on Facebook.  I have never been nor do I ever plan to be on Facebook.  Just…ech, don’t get me started.  So, when I get an email earlier this week from the race saying “your pictures are available!!!” I was excited to check them out.  Well, it led me to a FB landing page and said “Like this page to see your pictures!”.  Grr.  No, not cool.  After stewing about it for several days, I finally asked Neal if he could do it through his account so I could at least see the pics.  Well we “Liked” it (rabble rabble) and when I entered my bib number, there weren’t any results and a note that said “we were unable to tag you in any pictures”, so they’re also relying on me being on FB to “tag” me and I therefore have no official race photos from this race.  Nevermind that my bib was clearly visible so they know who I am.  No, no I have to be on FB to be tagged.  I at least got to view official photos from every other race I have run and for the cost of this race, this actually really pisses me off.  Okay, rant over.  You have been informed 🙂

A Running Data Nerd’s Dream

I recently gave in and bought my first running GPS watch.  I agonized over the expenditure a little bit once I hit “process order” on Amazon, but that guilt/apprehension completely disappeared after using it for the first time yesterday!  I jumped right in and went with the Garmin Forerunner 220.  Lucky for me that purple is my favorite color, because that’s the only women’s option.

It even has a purple theme option for the screens!

I have been using RunKeeper for the past year, and while that is definitely a solid app, this watch and the accompanying Garmin Connect website and app are just in a whole other league.  The watch syncs with Bluetooth to your phone, where you can download the app and not only upload all of your activities, but get access to a bunch of extra data for your runs that isn’t available/viewable on the watch itself.  You can also set goals, create training plans to send to the watch, share with friends (if you’re into that, I’m not), save routes as courses to be repeated and times compared, and on and on.  Specific to your runs, you will have access to more data about your run than you ever dreamed possible.

Routes, maps, elevation profiles, split info (pace and speed), cadence, calories, best pace, average pace, run profile replay, etc. all laid out in a really nice dashboard and with charts.  You can also send all the data to a spreadsheet, view your stats in a calendar format (how far did I run this week/month/year???), create reports….okay, I know I’m getting a little excited here, but perhaps a little bit of context will help.  I love data.  I perform data analysis for a living and get to play with huge sets of data all day.  Sure, it’s a corporate job and has all the attendant drawbacks, but overall, the job itself is pretty cool because I get paid to analyze large sets of data, which I love 🙂  So, you can imagine that getting to experience this in relation to my running now is very exciting for this data nerd!

I love a good data dashboard!

I’m experimenting more with trail running (as evidenced by some of my splits above, sheesh!) and I’m really falling in love with it.  I am not a fast runner, so while I still really enjoy road running/racing, I think I’m going to include a lot more trail racing in my repertoire.  It suits me – slow and steady.  Also something about having to focus on every single footstep helps me reach that zen mode a lot quicker than running on smooth surfaces where you don’t have to worry about falling so much.

I have a trail half marathon on November 8th, and yesterday’s run was exploring that course, which I really loved and am now even more excited for that race!  Before that though, I have a 15K race in one week!  Yes, one week!  My leg has been giving me some issues that I just have to keep an eye on, but overall, I’m excited to race next weekend.  I won’t be breaking any personal records since I’m still dealing with this injury and honestly just haven’t trained as much as I would have liked to, but it will be a fun day.  It’s a big national race, so it will be an experience.

The other new thing I tried recently is another app I highly recommend for anyone who loves to run with music and is very motivated by the music itself.  I read about an app called RockMyRun in Competitor magazine recently and I decided to give it a try.  Boy does it knock the socks off of Pandora!  It’s playlists/mixes created by DJs specifically for running.  You specify the genre(s), BPM, length, and whether you want PG or R-rated lyrics and it gives you a list of playlists!  When you pay the $36 annual subscription to get a premium membership (highly, highly recommended), you get access to all mixes, access to mixes over one hour (I think 45-60 minutes is the max on the free version), no ads, you can adjust the BPM on mixes, download/cache mixes for playing at times without a signal, etc.  The mixes are so motivating!  It’s better than just a playlist and is now an essential tool for my runs.  It’s one of my favorite apps of all time now.

What’s new with running for you these days? 

Have you recently tried/found something that reinvigorated your workouts or runs?

Sidebar – there is a chocolate peanut butter flavor of GU energy gels, I’m getting down on some of that in next weekend’s race!

🙂

Becky

Homemade Energy Balls

I was inspired recently while reading Scott Jurek’s book Eat and Run to make some homemade energy bars/balls and experiment using them while running.  I finally got around to giving this a try and my first batch was (mostly) a success!  I felt kind of excited and proud of myself when I pulled one of these out of my pocket on a run today instead of a gu or gel.  I’ll still use those, and I have a few more thoughts on that below, but this was a fun and tasty way to shake things up.

My energy ball recipe consisted of the following:

Approximately 1 1/2 cups of dried medjool dates

Approx. 3/4 cup dried cherries

Approx. 1 1/2 cups halved walnuts

6-8 tablespoons raw honey

Approx. 1/4 cup oat bran grains

Approx. 3/4 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

2-4 tablespoons sea salt

I list everything as approximate for the main reason being I have learned through recovery from my eating disorder that if cooking feels too prescriptive, confined, or defined, it stresses me out and causes anxiety.  I try very hard to compose meals by feel based on experience, intuition, and creativity so that it feels natural.  Certainly there are times when a recipe is necessary or disaster will ensue, but with something like this, I felt no need to strictly follow someone else’s recipe.  I put this together simply based on reading about a dozen homemade energy bar recipes at this point.

I ground up the walnuts, dates, and cherries in a food processor and then just folded all other ingredients into that mixture.  Then I hand-packed them into balls about the size of a golf ball and refrigerated for an hour or so before individually wrapping and putting them back in the fridge for storage.

Big takeaways and things I will be tweaking in future batches:

1. Medjool dates have pits still in them!  Ha, rookie mistake, trust me, I know.  I ended up with some potentially tooth cracking pit pieces in my balls (okay, he he, trust me, there has been no shortage of juvenile “ball” jokes and innuendo around this house since I made these) that a little soft chewing and fun spitting won’t solve.  Suffice it to say though, I will be removing this peril in future batches.
2. I would scale back the amount of walnuts and oat bran a little bit.  I ended up adding more honey than I originally anticipated to get the mixture to satisfactorily bind together

Other than that, the actual taste is scrumptious if I do say so myself!  Also, other than the honey (and there are alternatives to honey), these are vegan, which is something I’m aiming for more frequently.

As far as eating one on today’s run, that went pretty well too.  I felt a comparable energy boost to a gel (I purposefully designed these to be high in carbs, natural sugars, and sodium to get that boost gels give) and I didn’t experience any digestion issues.  The only note is that it was certainly more challenging to actually consume.  I usually take 30-60 second walk breaks to slurp down a gel and some water, but with these it was probably more like 2-3 minutes to take bites, chew, swallow, drink, etc.  I will either reserve these for longer distances where I don’t mind taking a little extra time for something that overall sat in my belly and certainly tasted better than a gel, or I may try going 50/50 or 75/25 with homemade items and gels with gels accounting for the higher percent when not 50/50.

I’ve been re-fueling on shorter 5-6 mile runs and while I’m still undecided about whether I will continue to do that, I have noticed that I’m not worn out or ravenous and inclined to stuff my face afterward.  Just something I’m taking note of.

Vegetarian running is going strong.  I’m opting for full vegan more and more frequently, which really just makes me feel like I’m eating the most healthy, simple foods as possible, and my body certainly thanks me for it.  I don’t foresee going vegan full time right now because I genuinely still enjoy and rely on dairy and eggs a few days a week.  I figure full time vegetarian with part time vegan thrown in there is still a huge accomplishment for this very recent ex-carnivore.

If you like to experiment in the kitchen and/or really just can’t bring yourself to love energy gels, gu’s, and blocks for running, I highly recommend giving something like these homemade treats a try!

Have any of you ever experimented with homemade running fuel?

Becky

Why I Love Cool/Cold Weather Running

I was in Seattle for the past week mixing a little business and pleasure.  It was a great trip and I discovered Seattle is a very vegetarian/vegan friendly city!  I had no trouble finding restaurants and items on menus that were sans meat or dairy.  I fully expected going in to the trip that I would have one meal of fish/seafood, but that never happened!  I was so satisfied with all of the other items I found I never felt the need to “indulge” in a seafood meal.  The adventure, culinary experience, and a really awesome data conference made for a thoroughly enjoyable past week!

My return to Colorado reminded me that fall is officially here.  I returned last night to temperatures in the low 40’s that dipped below freezing over night.  We removed the window air conditioners and turned on the heater for the first time.  I went for a run today (I only ran once in Seattle, and it was on a treadmill – fail – but I’m not beating myself up over it) and not only was it the strongest, longest, just all around best run I’ve had since before my injury, but it reminded me how I really love cool and cold weather running.

In no particular order, are the things I love about fall and winter running:

1) Not having to slather sunscreen all over my body to protect exposed areas from the sun

2) Pace naturally picks up because my body isn’t working so hard to keep me cool

3) Socks!!!  Cool weather means bring on the knee high socks to stay warm 🙂

4) My running gear isn’t completely saturated with sweat when I’m done running

5) I find it easier to breathe – I don’t know if that’s true for most people and/or whether it has something to do with my asthma or the general lower levels of crap in the air in the fall/winter months, but it’s noticeable easier for me to suck wind

6) Gorgeous Colorado scenery – changing colors in the fall and crisp, brisk air and snow-covered mountains in the winter

7) Fewer people on the paths and trails – let’s face it, only the dedicated keep it going year round

8) Excuse to buy a few new running clothing items – yes, yes I do need more long sleeve shirts and pants

9) Themed races – because covering distances is a lot more fun wearing a Halloween costume or Santa hat

10) More necessary clothing/gear = more opportunities to wear crazy colors and show a little personality

11) Tons of winter races mean plenty of opportunities and excuses to stave off that holiday season weight gain

12) The permission to not feel as guilty when I have that eggnog or piece of pumpkin pie because I’ll run it off

13) The likelihood of getting the winter blues is decreased since running keeps me level and happy

14) Getting to enjoy Colorado year round and not feel cabin fever in the winter months

15) Getting to push my long runs on the weekends to the hours during which I prefer to run (generally anywhere between 9am-1pm) to allow the temperature to rise

If fall is not yet upon you in your neck of the woods, enjoy these last days of summer.  For the rest of us, I hope you’re finding joy in the small pleasures of cooler temperatures!

Becky

Making my way to the right shoe

Part of recovering from this injury (tibial stress syndrome) and getting back to running is a re-evaluation and fine-tuning of the shoes I’m running in.  For the past five months, I’ve been running in the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 14 model.  I bought them about a week after my half marathon in April and they were definitely an improvement over the every day New Balances I had been running in.  Don’t get me wrong, I still really like NB, but the upgrade to Brooks for running made a big difference.

Those Brooks gave me quite a bit more support and I could certainly tell the difference.  About six weeks into those new shoes, however, I got injured.  I don’t believe it had anything to do with the shoes; my physical therapist is also pretty adamant that given my physiology (flat-footed, over-pronator), this injury was inevitable.  The timing also meant that I only put about 90-100 miles on them before my injury, and in the past four weeks since I started running again, probably only about an additional 20.  As far as shoe lifetimes go, these are still perfectly good shoes that should get me through about another 300 miles, but this injury has forced me to re-think what I’m running in.

The first step was a good insole.  I bought these Montrail moldable insoles and they definitely gave me a lot more support without introducing rubbing or poking.  One tip is that I had to exchange them for one size down from my shoe size so that they would fit just right.

    These have worked well and my PT approves of them, but I decided this week that I wanted to try out a full motion control shoe, just to see if it would make a difference and let me get back to running longer distance without too much pain in my leg.  The Adrenalines are considered a Stability shoe, and one step up from that is Motion Control.  So, to the running store I went, and after trying three different pairs from a few different brands and almost a mile total of jogging it out on the store treadmill, I walked out with a pair of Brooks Addiction 11’s.  I ran in them for the first time today, with the insoles, and I am definitely a fan.

I was a little apprehensive since they appear to be a “beefy”shoe, but they are surprisingly light weight and I didn’t feel like I was clomping around at all.  I did a little over 5 miles of trails in these today partly because I’m still really wary of hard surface running and also because, in a moment of insanity, I recently signed up for a trail half marathon in November.  🙂

My goal is to find a shoe I really like, that helps keep me injury free, so I can just buy a new pair each time they wear out and not have any more surprises or trial periods.  I’m pleased with these and will stick with them for a while to see how they perform.

I no longer consider myself a rookie runner, but in a lot of ways, I’m definitely still a newbie.  This whole journey to the right shoe and how to keep myself injury free is just part of that.  I’m feeling very positive about my 15K race on October 5th and yes, even about the trail half marathon on November 8th!  I’m just so stinking happy to be running again!!!!!

My other focus in these coming months is fine-tuning race/running fuel strategies.  I’ll write another post about it, but I’m considering either going entirely with homemade options, or at least 50/50 with store-bought gels.  There are some really amazing vegan/vegetarian recipes out there for “energy ball” type goodies that frankly just sound way more amazing than gels.  I’m not sure they will be as easy to consume and digest though, so let the trial and error begin!

And finally, vegetarianism is still going strong.  I’m going to focus on whether I seem to recover from exercise and longer runs quicker, as pretty much every veg/vegan runner claims.  That would be helpful since I would still like to get to a place where my weekly mileage is more in the 20-25 range once I’m fully recovered from this injury.

I stumbled onto some vegan “ice cream” at Sprouts yesterday.  Even if you’re not vegan, I recommend this stuff simply because they had some really unique and tantalizing flavors and honestly, it’s just as rich and creamy (and bad for you) as the real stuff!

Becky

Optimistic; Ambitious; Crazy…meh, I don’t see the difference

It’s Labor Day weekend and I’m off from work until September 15th.  Roll out the parade because this is a much-needed break!  Today I am grateful for sunshine, fresh air, my health, my husband, and of course, PTO (paid time off).  🙂

At this point, I would say I’m about 90% healed/recovered from my “tibial stress syndrome” injury from early June.  This has been a long road of rehabilitation, physical therapy, and mental fortitude, but I can confidently state that I am officially on the mend.  I’m running again, but only within the past two weeks have I been able to run more than once a week, and I’m only running 2-4 miles at a time (for now) on crushed gravel/treadmill (no pavement yet).  I will say that once I seem to have turned the corner and could start running again about 4 weeks ago, progress has been pretty quick and steady.  I lost a lot of endurance and cardio/pulmonary strength, but it’s coming back quickly.  I think once you achieve a certain level of fitness, unless you quit/are forced to abandon physical activity for years, your body remembers how to perform.  I’m determined to come back from this injury stronger and smarter than before.  The word gratitude again comes to mind – I am so very grateful to have legs to carry this body and that I am able to get out and pound some trails again (finally!!).  

I recently explored the Waterton Canyon trail here in the Denver area (I’ve been down there many times, but only to either grill/camp out or do stupid stuff back as a teenager).  It’s an amazing path through a canyon, paralleled by a winding river, with beautiful views.  It’s scenes like these that remind me why I frickin’ love running:

I have a 15K race on October 5th for which I registered months ago and before my injury.  I am crossing that finish line and will do everything between now and then to train and finish strong (whatever that looks like at the time – I’m not going to push this injury – if I take walk breaks, I take walk breaks).  Also this morning, I finally signed up for a 2015 race I’ve had my eye on for about 4 months now, the Colorado Marathon in Ft. Collins.  May 3, 2015 it’s just me and the Poudre Canyon.  I can’t wait!  I may have gotten carried away with the race bug this morning, or I was just feeling cocky now that I’m running again, but in addition to signing up for that race, I also signed up for another race I’ve had my eye on for months – the Highlands Ranch Backcountry Wilderness Half Marathon, on November 8th!  I know, I’m loony tunes…or maybe brilliant and going to use it as my muse to fully recover…I’m not sure.  What I do know is that running is a sport in which you have to challenge yourself to make progress, so I think I’m covered with the “challenge” part for now…

I am also happy to report it’s been a month now since I gave up meat and…………I don’t miss it!  Honestly, and trust me, no one is more shocked about this than me!  I had an epiphany that I was only eating meat because I’ve eaten meat my whole life.  Don’t get me wrong, meat is tasty – I can still acknowledge that and wish you meat eaters out there the best of times.  However, the fact that I don’t miss meat and have not struggled with vegetarianism for a single second since I started this, hit me like a ton of bricks and I don’t anticipate going back.  The absolute only thing I could even fathom being tempted by at some remote point in the future is sushi – I love sushi.  I made a deal with myself that I would simply cross that bridge when I get to it.  Meanwhile, vegetarian it is, and I love how I feel.  I’m eating more vegetables than ever before and I’m not going hungry.  Now that I’m running again, I’ll keep you updated on how I may need to adjust what I’ve been eating for the past month to make sure I properly fuel my body, but I have complete faith it’s possible to be a runner on a vegetarian diet.  How can you not love meals like this:

Veggie tacos – yum!

I feel a little bit like a hippie hipster going vegetarian, but I don’t ultimately care.  This is doing wonders to help me manage my weight, cut down on binge eating, continue the journey of recovery from an eating disorder, and pursue health.  I’m committed to staying on this path.

Run and eat happy!

Becky