Perseverance and Patience

Life is hectic, friends. New job, training for that job, a very heavy semester at grad school - everything else has to be minimized and/or pushed to the side.

Like running. And writing.

I desperately miss both.

Life feels hard right now. Maybe it's grief (my father passed away November 9th), or the move, or the location change, or the classes I chose this semester.

But I'm drained. And tired. That kind of fatigue that creeps into your bones and lingers.

Running is therapeutic for me. Something happens on my long runs of 13+ miles. At a certain point, my mind completely clears. Nothing matters anymore. Nothing seems too difficult. Life becomes manageable.

I have not experienced that feeling since September. That was my last training run of 13+ miles. The farthest I've gone since the marathon is 12 miles.

I've shared before that I've been having some trouble with my legs for some time now. I remember exactly when it started. March 16th, driving home from an early St. Patrick's Day breakfast. It began as excruciating pain in my right hip and inner knee. My husband said he'd never seen me in such pain (which is saying a lot, considering we saw me through an unmedicated homebirth).

Through several rounds of PT, visits to the doctor, and rest days galore, the pain moved from my hip to behind my knees. It's stayed there. Sometimes coming around front, but mostly hanging out in the back of the knee(s).

So, I've been doing cross-training. Spin class, interval training, walking, elliptical, and most recently Piloxing (a combo of Pilates and boxing). One of my strength training teachers told me that due to my legs being different lengths and my severe hip weakness, running is setting me up to need hip replacement.

Not really what a runner wants to hear.

Yet I cannot escape the fact that I am a runner. I will likely never place in a race (unless I'm 80). I'll always be a mid-to-back-of-the-packer.

But I'm still a runner. I've become one. Through and through.

The day after I was told I'll likely eventually need hip replacement, I ran 8 speedy miles with friends. One mile was 8:28. The cross-training is making me stronger; for that, I'm thankful. But it's difficult to avoid discouragement.

I'm going to try some new things. A new strength and stretching routine. A training plan with less running that is more concentrated. Some dietary tweaks. We'll see if anything helps.

Despite the challenges, I have had some beautiful runs. Just a bit shorter :) I'm enjoying running in new territory, making new routes, learning new places.

See the deer?

I'd love prayers as well. I've experienced miraculous healing before. I'm certainly open to God doing that again.

More than anything, as always, I deeply desire that God be glorified.

My psalm this year is Psalm 25. Verses 4 & 5 are literally carrying me these days. I encourage you to read them out loud with me.

Show me your ways, O Lord,
    teach me your paths;
guide me in your truth and teach me,
    for you are God my Savior,
    and my hope is in you all day long.

All day long, Lord. All day long.

Marathon Training: Week 17

Week 17.

Beginning the taper.

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 4.25 miles

Wednesday: 4.35 miles

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 3 miles

Sunday: 11.75 miles - final long run before marathon

I ran 23.35 miles this week.

Hartford*, here I come.

*I was originally going to run the Baltimore Marathon, but because we haven't moved yet, I signed up for Hartford.

Marathon Training: Week 16

I ran 20.86 miles this week, including the awesome Zooma Half!

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 4.3 miles

Wednesday: 3.46 miles

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 13.1 miles: Zooma Cape Cod Half Marathon

Sunday: Rest

Great Foods For After Long Runs

I ran 11.25 miles this morning at a 9:18 pace. That's a spritely pace for me :)

When I got home, I started eating and haven't stopped.

I thought I'd post about some great post-run foods. Being that I'm a Lifetime member of Weight Watchers, I count all the points, of course!

I started with Poor Man's Pancakes as we always have tons of overripe bananas in this house. I had scrambled eggs with veggies on the side.

Lunch was a variation on this falafel recipe with tahini dressing.

Falafel Muffins

4 cups cooked garbanzo beans (chickpeas) (I soak them overnight and cook them in my slow cooker)

1 onion, chopped

2 T dried parsley

6-8 cloves minced garlic

2 egg

2 t kosher salt

1/4 t black pepper

4 t ground cumin

2 t ground coriander

1/8 t cayenne pepper

2 large slices gluten-free bread

Put it in a food processor and process! Rather than try to fry these as patties (I can't get them to hold together) or make them in the slow cooker (same issue), I scooped about 1/4 cup into greased muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Makes 12 falafel muffins, 3 points plus each.

Tahini Dressing

6 T tahini

Juice of one lemon

2-5 cloves of garlic, to taste

A tiny sprinkle of cayenne pepper

1/2 t - 1 t salt (to taste)

Sprinkle of dried parsley

Water

Put this all in your high-powered blender. Add enough water so it's 15-16 ounces. Blend until it's, well, blended!

This makes 15-16 2 tablespoon servings, 1 points plus each.

Dessert was Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough because I had extra chickpeas!

Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
2 cups warm chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1/8 cup agave with 10 drops vanilla liquid stevia mixed in
1/4 cup natural peanut butter (I prefer salted)
1/4 cup dairy-free semisweet chocolate chips*

Mix the first 3 ingredients in the food processor. Transfer it to a bowl and mix in the chocolate chips*. This comes out to be about 1 3/4 cups. Each 1/4 cup serving is 5 points plus.

Yum! A full day of fulling food and one full mama.

Next week, I'm running my 2nd half marathon, the Half of Quincy. Looking forward to totally rocking it!

*Given that Passover is approaching, it is fairly easy to get regular-sized dairy & soy free chocolate chips at stores that sell Passover-safe foods, as opposed to the mini chips I usually buy from Enjoy Life/Amazon. Amazon is selling the regular sized chips at a fair price, but I found them at Roche Bros (if you're in MA) for $3/10 oz bag.

Still Running

Still running & gearing up for the "big race". OK, so it's only a 5K (3.1 miles), and I've done that before (albeit in 2003), but it's still exciting! Today, we (Bear & I) ran for about 43 minutes.

I'm back on the green smoothie band wagon today after only having 4 green smoothies last week. It was quite good.

There's still time to donate money! Actually, I'm pretty sure you can donate after the race is over as well. We're over 60% of the way there!

Blogging Slacker!

My week has been so busy that I've been a blogging slacker!

Notice that we're over 50% of the way to our fundraising goal!

I did my long run on Tuesday (5.5 miles). I have to admit; I ran slowly, but it still kicked my butt! And I did my long walk yesterday. So tomorrow or Saturday, hopefully, I'll do my short run. Then next week is Race Week!

I'm cutting caffeine out of my diet in an effort to be more healthy. I'm still drinking decaf Americanos (or Americani?), but I may cut those out as well. I've been fighting a lot of fatigue, so I'm trying to narrow down the reasons. It may simply come down to the fact that I haven't gotten a full night of sleep in over a year. I'm lucky if I get 6-7 hours of sleep, and that's never uninterrupted sleep. The joys of having a child!

I also have to say I love that the feeling of fall is in the air. Often when I run or walk, the weather is in the low 70's with a cool breeze. I just love it! Of course, that means winter is coming, which I don't love. I don't mind winter, but no one fully clears their sidewalks around here. That means no running, much less walking. I don't know how we're going to swing it! The local community center has a walking track, as well as treadmills, so I might join. Of course, the jogging stroller can't go on the treadmill & there's no running allowed on the walking track. I'll have to keep brainstorming....

Training

As part of my "training" program for the 5K, I'm trying to do one long run (4.5-6 miles), one long walk, an one short run (about 3 miles) weekly. This week, I completed that easily, despite being quite busy. The weather has been a challenge lately, but there was very little rain this week.

I'm over 30% of the way toward my goal of raising $1000 with money that has already been donated. Including another $200 in promises, we're halfway there! Thanks to all who have given so far & to those who are considering giving.

My Asus battery isn't holding a charge as well as it should. Even though it was plugged in all night, it only has a 20% charge right now . I was hoping to write a long blog while Bear & I played outside, but I don't think that's going to happen :)