Fast

Enough is enough. I have been thoroughly enjoying the fruits of the summer. Literally. Cherries, peaches, plums, pears, pineapple, coconuts, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and grapes. I have started running more again, but am currently injured again. I keep active and eat when I am hungry, almost exclusively choosing raw foods, but apparently, I'm eating more than I am expending. The scale has been climbing gradually since last summer and I've now gained about 10 pounds since this time last year. Not cool.

It's not even that number on the scale that bothers me so much. I know that water weight and muscle mass can affect weight. It's when I can't fit into most of my clothes that I know it's not just some insensible variable contributing to my increased BMI. It's fat. I've gained weight. Yes, I still look good (not great). I'm not hideous. My husband still thinks I'm hot. But all those things don't matter because I am not happy with the way I look or feel and I intend to do something about it. Because let's face it, if I'm not happy with myself, no one else's opinion is going to change that.

Thursday, August 5: Didn't eat dinner, was not feeling well. Nausea, headache, fatigue. Only had watermelon. Felt a little better at bedtime, had some homemade dehydrated BBQ chips and a dark beer.

Friday, August 6: Morning weight at an all-time high since I've been a runner, 132. Time to panic. Immediately starting that juice feast I've been meaning to initiate for some time now. Did not eat any food all day. Had 3 cups of coffee with stevia during the day and 1 can of coconut water for dinner.

Saturday, August 7: Had one cup of coffee with stevia and 1 can of Mona Vie energy drink before running in a 5K race with an injured ankle (feels like dual peroneal tendonitis of the right foot). Didn't expect to be able to run at all, but finished the race in 25:35. Crappy time for the healthy me. Acceptable for the overweight and impaired me. Had 32 ounces of spinach, strawberry and pineapple juice for lunch. Consumed 2 cups of coffee mid-afternoon. For dinner, I had a can of coconut juice. At bedtime, enjoyed about 4 ounces of Barefoot Moscato.

Sunday, August 8: 2 cups of coffee with stevia. Lunchtime: 1 large bowl of "Gourmet Energy Soup" (golden delicious apple, avocado, dulse leaves, pine nuts and water blended together). Weight this morning was 127.6 without clothes. I'm sure it's over 128 now after eating the soup. You'd think after 3 days with virtually nothing to eat, the pounds would be melting off. No. I tried to put on a pair of capri pants this morning and they were too uncomfortably tight to get over my hips and thighs. I still have a ways to go...

122 would be acceptable. 120 would be comfortable. 118 would be awesomeness. But even more important than the scale are the numbers on the tape measure. I don't even want to know what they are right now. But I'd like to see my waist at 25-26 and my hips at 35-36. That is where I am most comfortable and happy. That is where I feel like my outside reflects my inside.

I am going to continue my fast, refraining from solid food and ingesting some blended foods and lots of juice along with other beverages. I know that the alcohol and caffeine are not the most healthy things I could be ingesting. But I don't think they are going to significantly contribute to weight gain at this point. Right now it's all about cleaning house. Getting rid of extra weight, toxins, all the junk that's literally weighing me down. I want to have a healthy body, a healthy self-image and once and for all heal from this nagging ankle injury that's keeping me from running. I am giving up solid food for a time. I am relinquishing something I enjoy: eating. I am doing so because I know that in order to make gains, sometimes one has to let go of something. I want to fast right now so that I can be restored and renewed. I envision my slightly smaller healthy body and my athleticism returning. I look forward to regaining my strength and stamina. By fasting, I will become fast. Again.

And that will make me very happy. :)

The Agony of the Feet

It's been 12 days now since I've been able to run. This is the longest I've gone without running in about 3 years. Not being able to run is intensely frustrating and at times, outright depressing. There is a big race coming up in 2 days that I know I will not be able to participate in, save for a miracle. It could happen. But I'm not holding my breath.

On June 5th, during a 10K run-of-the-mill road race, I started experiencing some mild pain in my right Achilles tendon area. By the end of the race, it became excruciating. I limp-ran toward the finish line with all the strength I had. I came home, took some ibuprofen, lay down, iced and elevated my foot. I stayed in bed the entire afternoon and did the same the following day. I thought I pulled a muscle or strained a tendon and that in 2 or 3 days I would be able to run again. I was wrong.

After 11 days with no real progress and fearing a stress fracture or tear, I went to see a highly-recommended podiatrist who specializes in sports injuries and who is a runner himself. I found myself waiting for about an hour and a half in the waiting room before finally being ushered into an exam room where I was asked a few questions about my injury, had a couple of foot x-rays taken and my blood pressure assessed. After about another 15 minutes, the doctor came in and asked what shoes I was wearing when I got my injury and how far I ran each week. He did a very brief exam of my feet, doing nothing to elicit the pain or even really examining the sore spot. He then went on to say that I have high arches and tight muscles and need to stretch more and wear a supportive shoe with orthotics. He told me I should get the Spira Stinger shoe and went on about people who wear them and how they win races and blah, blah, blah. I asked him about how I should treat my injury. He said, "You don't have an injury. It's just from overuse. There's no swelling." (When in fact, it was/is clearly swollen in the injured area.) I asked, "How should I treat it? Will I hurt it if I continue to walk on it?" He said to just do some ice and NSAID's and that I wouldn't really bother it by walking on it. I was given no real treatment plan, no pain relieving measures, no timeline as to when I could run again. Just a "prescription" for orthothic inserts and $100 running shoes that have springs in the soles.

I went home resigned to the fact that I would have to give up the idea of barefoot/minimalist running and that racing with springs on my feet just might be fun. But, after really pondering the whole visit, I realized that my foot was still just as sore as before I went in, clearly injured, and that this boob did nothing to diagnose or treat my problem. I felt like I had been to see a shoe salesman, not a healer. I am not one to readily go see a doctor. I have to be really sick, sore or near death before I will make an appointment. For me, allopathic medicine is a last resort. So, for me to take the initiative to go to him was a huge deal. The more I thought about the whole experience, the angrier I became.

I went to the Runner's World "Barefoot Running" message board and posted a message to the forum about my experience to see if anyone else had similar stories or advice. Sure enough, they agreed that my injury was most likely related to overuse (running too much too soon as a minimalist/barefoot runner) and that the podiatrist sounded like a quack. One person stated that they had never heard of a podiatrist who didn't recommend support shoes and orthotics. Here I went, trusting that this "professional" would be able to pinpoint and alleviate my problem and perhaps even encourage my pursuit of barefoot running. Unfortunately, I left the office feeling that I had just wasted a great deal of my time and money and being no closer to a solution than I was the day before. I did, however, learn a valuable lesson: to never to go this doctor again.

From my own research and analysis, I believe what I have is peroneal tendonitis. It is treated with rest, hot/cold therapy and NSAID's. All of which I am already doing. Now, the hardest part of the treatment: TIME.

I thought briefly about giving up my dreams of being a barefoot runner. About how I have engraved on my Road ID Ankle Bracelet, "RAW VEGAN BAREFOOT" and how it wouldn't be true any longer if I had to wear shoes. I thought about all the hard work and miles I've put into strengthening my calves and foot muscles already. I thought about the Vibram Bikilas I pre-ordered and how I'd have to cancel that order and instead order a pair of Spira Stingers. I thought about not being able to follow through on my goal of running at least one race this summer sans shoes. I then thought about how much I love being barefoot and this is who I am and who I want to be. About how this "expert's" opinions ran contrary to all I've read and researched. Yes, this guy might know a lot about feet, but he knows nothing about me.

I feel like everything I do is a sort of science experiment, from what I eat to what I wear to how I run. I am always trying something new and different based on what I believe to be the optimal path. Sometimes the experiments succeed, sometimes they fail. I guess that's why they are called experiments. I have to find what works for me and stick with it. I also have to be true to myself and continually strive for what I believe is best, and right now that means I am a raw vegan barefoot runner girl. At least for now.

Sore-ing to New Heights

I finally got them. My brand new Vibram KSO's. I had been waiting for no less than 3 months to obtain the Holy Grail of minimalist running shoes. I was sitting on the bench by the front door just having laced up my right shoe, getting ready to go for my mid-week mid-tempo run when the doorbell rang. It was my Vibrams. Actually, it was the UPS man delivering my new Vibrams. So, naturally, I took off my Asics and immediately donned my KSO's. I was so quick to get out the door and try them out that I forgot my chewing gum (something that is a prerequisite for my runs as my mouth and throat get so dry otherwise). I guess I would just have to tough out having a dry mouth. It was only a 5 mile run, I would probably be alright.

My feet felt light and quick. I did notice that when I happened to step on a large piece of gravel, I did feel it--something that didn't happen with my regular running shoes. I was travelling at a good quick pace; even faster than my goal pace. This was very cool. But, by the time I hit mile four, I could feel the familiar sting of blisters forming on my inner upper foot just below my big toe. Now every step was painful, but I couldn't decrease my pace. I would just run through the pain and deal with it when I got home. I couldn't understand why I would be getting blisters in my Vibrams. From all the dozens of reviews I read about these shoes, blisters were not mentioned!

I had a 5K race in two days. I thought that would be good enough to give my feet a rest and resolve the blisters. I decided that I would probably just wear my regular racing shoes for the race since I didn't want to make the blisters even more angry. By the evening after my maiden KSO run, my calves were starting to ache. It felt like I just did a major workout at the gym isolating my gastrocnemius muscles. I hoped that two days would heal that too.

Well, by Saturday morning, the blisters were pretty much gone, but I could still barely walk without pain. So, with the help of some naproxen sodium I ingested soon after arising and some Bio-Freeze massaged into my sore legs just minutes before the race, I decided to race in my Vibrams. I wasn't planning on winning the race, just getting through it. This was a training exercise if anything. Well, there were only about 55 participants and about 20 of those were walkers, so I didn't have a lot of competition. I ran as hard as I could. Almost to that point where I feel like I'm going to puke and then back off a little because that would be just too humiliating. My initial paces were great, but by the time I got to 3K, I was ready to be done. I was tired. I guess I went out too fast. Well, I pushed myself to the end. I didn't set any PR's that day. I finished in 23:29. But the good news is that I was the overall female winner! :-) Not my best time, but I guess I got rewarded for my effort.

Today is Sunday. My calves didn't get any less sore after pulling an all-out effort running basically barefoot on Saturday. And, as fate would have it, today is the "Long Run" day on my training calendar. I didn't think I should be heroic and don the minimalist shoes today. After all, I was still dealing with trying to walk without pain. So, I put on my good ole Asics Nimbus 11's and headed out to the trails for a 13.1 mile (21K) jaunt -- slow and easy. Every step was torture. All I could concentrate on was the pain I felt with each stride. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Even my iPod wasn't able to distract me from the discomfort. I didn't think there was any way I would survive 13 miles today. But, I would push myself as far as I could. This wasn't about speed, but endurance.

By the time I was about 5 miles into it, the calf pain seemed to subside. Either that, or some endorphins kicked in and dulled the pain. But it was still a laborious run. I wasn't going nearly as fast as my normal "slow" pace, but disappointingly much slower. It was humid and I was sticky, sweaty, and hot. I was tired. But I kept on going. I ran to Tobico Marsh and did the big loop twice and the small loop around the marsh once. I saw a black squirrel, a grey squirrel, several "normal" squirrels, almost got tripped by a scampering chipmunk and also met up with three fawns who pranced across the trail and then stopped about twenty feet away to watch me pass. I waved at them and (after I looked around to make sure no one was behind me) said, "Hi guys!" After a grueling nearly two hour run, I made it home and did and extra 0.2 km to boot.

Once safely inside the door, I could now fully experience and express my exhaustion and agony. I peeled off my shoes and socks only to reveal blisters on my blisters. My clothes were soaked and my face was covered with the salty residue I get when I know I put in a good workout. I downed a cold coconut water (this was the same coconut water I reminded myself was waiting for me if I hurried home and finished my run--my reward). Then, I headed to the shower, got dressed, uploaded my workout from my Garmin watch while sipping some freshly made apple juice and then crashed on the bed for an impromptu hour long nap. When I got up, my legs were even more sore and I could hardly move them, let alone actually walk. Ouch. I hobbled around for a while, played some games on the computer as a diversion from the soreness and later when I got up, it wasn't as bad as before. It's almost tolerable now. Nearly back to the level of moderate discomfort I had before I decided to add insult to injury with my half-marathon sized workout.

Tomorrow I have a day off of running. It's my cross-training day. Hopefully these legs will be able to pedal the stationary bike. I guess I'll find out. The next day, I get to do intervals. Oh, joy. I might even attempt them barefoot if I'm feeling bold enough. I hope my legs will have recovered a bit more by then. I know that this pain is just a sign that I'm using my muscles in a whole new way that theoretically should make me a stronger and better runner. I have another race next Saturday. I will be wearing my Vibrams. That is, if I am able to run at all.

Time to Get Serious

Okay Spring is officially here. We had some nice mid-70's days last week. Crazy for being barely April. Today is rainy and mid-50's but I'm not complaining. I started doing some barefoot walking (outside on the road). I'm still too chicken to do any real running. Mostly because I am only running 3 days a week now with my FIRST program and those runs are pretty intense. Too much for a barefoot noob. I would like to do some easy 1-2 milers on my off days, but finding the time to squeeze in an extra workout is not easy.

I have races scheduled pretty much through December. It is exciting and daunting. I have a 5K this Saturday and next weekend a 5K and a 6K. Three out of four weekends, I will do doing a 5K and an occasional 10K. I might do a half-marathon in late June, but I have to convince my husband to let me run during our family vacation (Big Ticket Festival). It shouldn't take more than a couple hours, right? He will probably still be sleeping in...won't even know I'm gone. :) In July is the Frankenmuth Volksläufe 20K, basically another half-marathon. And here's the big one: my first marathon (still just a potential at this point)-- the Beaver Island Marathon. This race looks AMAZING. It is on a remote island off of Lake Michigan, has a relatively small number of participants and is a Boston qualifying race! How cool is that? So, I think that when I finish my 18-week half-marathon training program (which should be complete my mid-June) I will get started on the marathon training program. :)

I completed a 7 day total juice feast last week. It was easier than I thought and I felt great. Now that I am back to solid foods, I feel tired. I will probably go back on mostly juice for a while. I had to break my fast because my husband flew home for a couple of days during Easter weekend and demanded that we go out to dinner. I had a "big salad." That's about as extravagant as I get when we go out to eat. I am a cheap date, but I make it for it when I go grocery shopping.

Now I am just waiting for my sons to get home from track practice so I can go for my interval run. I hate my interval runs, but will feel much better when it's done. I'm hoping all this hard work pays off and I can set some PR's this summer. Well, time to get back to work. There is no rest for the dedicated.

A New Leaf

Spring is coming. I know it is. I am watching the water dripping down from the deck above as the snow melts through the cracks. The sun is warmer, brighter and more enduring. 40 degrees seems "warm." Spring is a time for new resolutions, growth, and change.

I am looking forward to continuing with my F.I.R.S.T. "Run Less Run Faster" 18-week half-marathon training program. I am just into week 3. I ran 18 km yesterday. It was a beautiful sunny, clear day with temperatures topping out at a balmy 47 degrees. I should be a faster, more efficient runner by mid-June. We'll see.

I also look with great anticipation to receiving my "transitional" running shoes--the Vibram KSO's that I ordered in January. Due to high demand, they have been on backorder and are scheduled to be sent mid-March. I can't wait to start running barefoot, although I have to say that I'm not looking forward to any attention it might draw to me. I'm not doing it to stand out, be different or rebel against Nike. I just think it's a very desirable, more natural way to run. And I've read that it can allow a person to run 5% faster than if they were wearing running shoes.

Another welcome change will be the introduction of a new Excalibur top-of-the-line food dehydrator and a Hurom juicer that I purchased with money I received from doing some web programming. My Nesco has been very good, but waiting 4 days for Kale chips, dehydrated broccoli and spirulina-goji berry cookies is just too long! I look forward to making a lot more dehydrated goodies like corn chips, flax crackers and homemade fruit roll-ups on a regular basis. And as for the new juicer, I am preparing to go on a major "Juice Feast" lasting at least a week, preferably a month or longer. I'm not sure how well that will compliment my athletic training program.

I have been adding all the upcoming events to my calendar. It's going to get very busy. We have a big Kindergarten music program and dance recital coming up. Track season officially gets underway on March 15th and I will have at least one of my two teenagers participating in that. Hopefully two. Plus, lots of races coming up, from 5K's to 10K's to my first 20K on July 3!

I started my garden today. I planted most of my vegetable seeds in starter pots. I planted kale, spinach, lettuce, bell peppers, pear tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, Swiss chard, basil, cilantro, dill, cauliflower, broccoli, summer squash, and asparagus. I also planted some echinacea. I just need to get some cucumber, Roma tomato and zucchini seeds. I wanted to get my lupine flowers started, but I can't find where I put the seeds I purchased last fall. :(

I am glad the snow and ice are melting. I relish the sun's warm rays filtering in the many windows of our home. I look forward to hearing and seeing the river flowing again (and an end to the snowmobiles, motorcycles and four-wheelers zooming by on the ice at all hours of the day and night). I look forward to gardening, running, eating healthier and all the other many blessings that the nicer weather brings with it. April 4th is Easter Sunday, another symbol of life and hope. Spring is so full of promise and potential. I hope everyone takes this time to re-evaluate, renew, and restore; that we all make an effort to turn over a new leaf.