Month: July 2014

“Coxsackie” is Really a Thing??

/ Jess / 3 Comments

Hey gang! WOW. It has been one hell of a week. Where do I begin? Let’s start with where I last left you – after my fantastic swim on Monday night.

Tuesday morning we had a blood drive at work and I donated double the red blood cells. So they hooked me up to the machine, drew my blood three times, spun and separated it, then pumped it back in three times, along with saline to help replenish my fluids. A half hour later, I had made friends with everyone in the blood mobile (what up blood people!!), I downed a cranberry juice and a pack of raisins and went on my merry way. The nice man even made me a bow for my bandage because I was such a good girl:

photo 1

Not pictured: my smug, self-satisfied smile.

That evening, I started feeling a little off – nauseous, headache-y, exhausted, achy, etc. After dinner, when I tried to tell my husband that I couldn’t hold my head up any longer but actually said the words, “I can’t get my head open now”, he smartly realized it was time for me to call it a day and go to bed at 8PM.

After 13 hours of sleep (!!), I attempted work on Wednesday but still had to leave work at noon because I felt so cruddy. I slept for another 6 hours that afternoon before bed, and Thursday I woke up feeling better. I was on my feet rushing around for my company’s 25th anniversary party from 8AM through 7PM, but I felt good! UNTIL I walked out of the building and my throat felt like it was closing up and my head threatened to burst open with pain. What the ever loving hell?? I got home, walked in the door in tears from the pain, collapsed on the couch (still in my dress, jewelry, and party shoes!) and slept for 3 hours. When I woke up with a 102 degree fever and the chills, I popped some motrin and passed back out.

Fast forward to Friday, when the doctor couldn’t figure out what was wrong, my fever was up to 102 again, and I was ready to go to the ER. My throat was so swollen and painful that I couldn’t manage anything beyond water, my appetite was GONE, and my body felt like I got hit by a bus. That night the fever broke, but that just meant I was entering phase 3 of this wacky illness: the blisters.

photo 3AKA the part where you want to cut your hands and feet off

Those of you with children (or who read the title of my post) are probably well aware of where this is headed, but I spent all day Saturday Googling “fever + body aches + blisters” and diagnosed myself with everything from scarlet fever to ebola. Until I stumbled across “hand, foot, and mouth disease“. It’s also known as coxsackie, which I’d heard of and laughed at before – laughed at it, that is, until I caught it.

Because let me tell you: This shit is NO JOKE. The pain, itching, and discomfort of my hands and throat had me in tears at least 3 times a day, making sleep (and eating solid foods) a distant memory. I had read a handful of stories where this lasted from 7-10 days or more in some people, and I just couldn’t imagine dealing with it for the rest of the week. I cried myself to sleep that night and woke up Sunday morning to find my throat feeling mildly better while I still wished my hands would magically fall off. I went to bed that night praying that it’d be better the next day and woke up to find my wish granted. Finally!! I could use my hands without wanting to tear the skin off them! I could swallow a smoothie instead of room-temperature broth! Well, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad, because my feet finally started to swell and sting. Eh, I could live with that if everything else got better.

I worked from home and felt progressively better throughout the day, finally asking hubby to “take me for a walk” like an invalid down the waterfront park for some fresh air after dinner. I limped for 2 full miles to beat the stir craziness, and my feet paid for it later with screaming blisters that I had to soak in a hot Epsom salt bath. But it was worth it!

photo 2

That’s the face of freedom right there.

So now we’re up to speed on my week! I came in to work today feeling pretty good, my throat and hands have held up beautifully (although they both look all scarred and terrible and are good at keeping my enemies at bay), and my foot blisters are starting to calm down. I think I’ll be at 100% tomorrow, which is great considering I thought I was looking at having this for my birthday later this week.

The one thing to note is that we discovered that this was all hubby’s fault. See, he brought it home from the school he works in and had a mild version last weekend, which I then picked up from him. We didn’t know that his fever and smattering of non-painful blisters on his hands were a related thing, and so that’s how I ended up catching it. Sharing is caring!

So I’m sorry I don’t have any running updates for you, but at least this was an interesting story with some funny science-y words thrown in for good measure? 🙂 Have you ever heard of coxsackie? Or even worse, have you ever had it? Any other random weird illnesses for me to be terrified of? Tell me in the comments!

Swim Away

/ Jess / 2 Comments

After Sunday’s disheartening run, I needed a little low-impact redemption, so I hit the pool for a swim.

10489816_10100282394241759_5913081025539517086_n

My new happy place.

During my first clueless swimming experience, I wondered why I was getting motion sickness as I swam. It turned out that I was doing things entirely wrong (big surprise there) and it wasn’t necessary to turn my head from side to side with every stroke.

CaptureI never claimed to know what the hell I was doing, guys.

 So when I slipped into the water Monday night, I stretched out and took off, swimming with my head down and coming up for air every 3-4 strokes. And it worked beautifully! Before I knew it, I was up to 5 laps back and forth, and I felt great. I paused between each lap to catch my breath and see how I felt, but kept at it for a total of about 25 minutes.

After it was all said and done, I had managed about 12 laps. Some quick Googling (remember, I have no idea what I’m doing) confirmed that I had done about 600 meters, and while I have no idea what that even means, it felt fantastic. I even figured out how to get my ear plug/swim cap/goggle combo all working properly too!

photo 1 (5)

That’s some serious swimmer posing right there.

All in all, it was a huge confidence-boosting workout. And I’m excited to have a benchmark now for my future swimming workouts – maybe next week I’ll aim for 800 or even 1000 meters!

Does anyone have some swimming tips or tricks to share? Maybe you know of a website or other resource where I can learn a bit more about the basics in distance and time? I’m excited to soak up everything I can!

Keepin’ it Real

/ Jess / 5 Comments

I don’t want to delude anyone or say everything’s happy slappy when it really isn’t. So here it goes: my knee is killing me. My good knee. The one that wasn’t cut open and operated on last year. It’s the knee that stood strong after its partner was disabled and carried me solidly through the finish line of my half marathon in April without a twinge. Until this past month. It started after a random run in mid-June. A stabby-ache started ust under the kneecap and I would baby it when I wasn’t running, but still the pain returned.

photo 2Getting real tired of your shit, legs.
It finally became a thing last week. A hard run early in the week, excruciating pain while walking downstairs at work in platform sandals the next day, and the ankle roll on Friday all culminated into a very bad, no good long run that didn’t pan out this past weekend when I went up to Packanack Lake to join my “marathon machine” friend (I’m sorry if you don’t like the name, Tina, but I’m not changing it) because our long runs were the same distance. In case the knee gave me hell, I brought my bike along. And it’s a good thing I did. Because give me hell it did.
photo 3Thank goodness the view was nice.
As we got to the parking lot at the end of the first 2.5 mile lap, I tapped out and hopped on my bike. My knee felt much better, but as I struggled up one last hill to start lap 3 on the bike, I hopped onto the downward spiral:
I had 8 miles on the schedule and I didn’t do it. I failed at a long run. And my knee would probably prevent me from getting one in this week. What if it really was injured and I had to skip running for a week or more to let it heal? How would I recover from that in time to run a marathon? Would I have to defer? How humiliating would that be?!! If I talked it up for months and then had to drop out? What a failure. I can’t even train for a marathon right. Millions of people do it every damn year and I can’t even train for 2 months properly without having to quit. Typical, I can’t see anything through to the end…
As I was about to finish 5 miles on the bike, I told myself to suck it up and tried running Tina in as she finished. Instead my knee gave out on me and I hobbled with her back to the car. We chatted for a while, took some selfies on a pretty bridge:
photo 4Why is my head so huge? The world may never know.
Then she took me out for a great post-run Starbucks trip, after which I drove myself home and cried for the. Whole. Hour. In the car. It was not my proudest moment. I just couldn’t help getting caught up in the fear that it was happening all over again and that I was doing everything wrong. So I got home and cried some more, went to lunch with mom for her birthday, and resolved to call the orthopedist the next day. And that’s basically where I’m at right now. Waiting for an appointment to see where this knee takes me and resting in the meantime. I haven’t run since Sunday and it’s still a bit tender. I’m hoping that a few more days of rest will help it get back to normal and that I’ll be smarter about the rest of my training (I’m even looking into a local running clinic to work on my form), and I’m grateful for everyone who’s offered me encouragement and advice these past few days.
I posted this photo with a little caption about my knee pain on Instagram and was so overwhelmed with positivity from my virtual friends that I cried.
photo 5The running community is seriously the best.
So keep checking back as I post more about how this knee feels, how my training goes, and everything else that’s knocking around in my brain – in the meantime, how’s your training going? Tell me everything and let me run vicariously through you in the comments! 🙂

Change of Plans

/ Jess / 7 Comments

Many, many people have trained for and successfully completed their first marathon using one of the countless training plans out there. But I can’t shake the feeling that the plan I first picked might not be the right one!

You see, through training for 3 half marathons and going through ACL reconstruction, I’ve discovered a few inalienable truths: I cannot run more than 2 days in a row without extreme joint pain; the day after my long run I need movement but my knees hate me; etc. So the cookie cutter plans that have worked for SO many others kind of won’t work.

After my first month of Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 plan, I’ve found that skipping that middle day of running and replacing it with cross training won’t work – I still need those miles to build a solid running base. But I also have to break up the runs so I don’t burn out, while still incorporating strength and cross training. And don’t forget building up to a distance that’s close to the full 26 miles… It’s enough to make a girl go insane. But instead of losing my mind, I took matters into my own hands and created my very own plan!

I found this great plan on CoolRunning.com and liked the increased mileage on the long runs: mentally, I need to know that I’ve gotten as close to that magic number of 26 in my training so that I’m prepared to take it on come race day. But it lacked cross training, which Hal’s Novice 2 had plenty of, although it only took me up to 20 miles. Factoring in all of my special needs, I finally came up with a custom-made plan that knocks it out of the park, if I say so myself! Here’s a sample week:

  • Sunday: 15 miles (Long Run)
  • Monday: Swimming
  • Tuesday: 3 miles
  • Wednesday: 7 miles
  • Thursday: Cross Training or Rest
  • Friday: 4 miles (Speedwork)
  • Saturday: Rest

Basically what I did was break up the 3 days of running in a row in Higdon’s plans, changed the rest day after my long run to a cross-training day with swimming (saving my knees around the long runs), and increased the mileage of the long runs each week by 2 or 3 miles to have  me peak with 23 miles instead of 20. I don’t know why but it makes me feel more prepared, just let me have my little bit of madness!

So there you have it: my new plan, which will (hopefully) bring me across the finish line in October with both legs intact and a smile on my face. What do you think? How have you worked through your training schedule? Am I being crazy here? Tell me in the comments!

International Mermaid Day is Coming!

/ Jess / Leave a comment

Exciting news here in Jess Runs Happy-ville:

10360785_502163769917386_2503083998204952304_nInternational Mermaid Day is coming!

The Mermaid Club is proud to announce the first ever International Mermaid Day! Yeah, we mermaids are so damn cool and badass that we deserve our own special day 🙂 To celebrate this inaugural event, TMC has partnered with the Make-A-Wish® Southern Florida and will be hosting a virtual 5k run, swim or bike event to raise some funds for this wonderful and inspiring charity.

Beginning Sunday, September 7, 2014, you can opt to run, swim or bike your distance on any date that week, with your choice of location. And I’m thrilled to be hosting the local New Jersey meetup!!

When, Where & How

  • When: Sunday, September 7, 2014
  • Cost: $25 with 20% of all proceeds being donated to Make-A-Wish® Southern Florida
  • Where: Everywhere! You can map your own course, but if you’re local to NJ and you want to join your fellow mermaids (and yours truly!), you’re more than welcome to! Mermaid Club reps will also be hosting meet-ups in: Sarasota, Tampa, & Boca Raton, Florida; South Amboy, New Jersey; Los Angeles & San Francisco, California; New Orleans, LA; and Melbourne, Australia
  • Registration is available on Active.com right here. That’s your official registration page, and if you want to come to the NJ Meetup, be sure to check in at my Eventbrite page as well so I know who to expect that day!

What happens next?

It’s easy! Sign up & we will mail you a bib. Then you run, bike or swim your event, snap a picture using the hastag #MermaidsMakeAWish and after the event you’ll get the most amazing TMC bling you have ever seen?

So come on Mermaids, what are you waiting for? Let’s Raise our Fins and give back by making a child’s Wish Come True with Make-A-Wish®!

Mermaid in Training

/ Jess / Leave a comment

After buying my new swimming gear a few weeks ago, I finally made the leap (dive?) and hit the pool at our local YMCA last night after work for some cross training.

So I slipped into my swimsuit and immediately had a small panic attack when I looked down at the rest of my swimming accoutrements and realized I had NO CLUE how to properly use them. I bought the swim cap, wax ear plugs, and goggles because they looked cool, but once I found myself shivering in the freezing cold locker room staring at these foreign objects on the bench before me, I panicked. Did my hair need to be wet to put the cap on? Then what was the cap for if my hair was going to get wet? Does it go over my ears? If it does, do I need the ear plugs too? Should I walk out with the goggles on or put them on in the pool?

photo 3Like I’ve said before, sometimes it really is hell inside my mind.

So after a fruitless Google search and some mild cursing for being so totally pathetic, I just decided to wing it and slapped everything on to the best of my ability. After pulling a third of my hair out by the roots trying to get the swim cap on, nearly losing the wax in my ear twice, and pinching myself hardcore with the goggle strap, I was ready to rock.

photo 1

Or at least I looked like I was ready.

It became clear that I needed to have some confidence if I was going to pull this off, so I grabbed my towel, took a deep breath, opened the door to the pool and flip flopped out to the closest bench.

I slipped into the water and pretended that it wasn’t as cold as it was. Little kids were getting swimming lessons in the far lane, for god’s sake! So I pulled my goggles down, dipped under, and kicked off… and felt myself break into the biggest smile since I crossed the finish line of my last half in April! It was amazing!

For the next half hour I did lap after lap, trying out every swimming stroke my grandma ever taught me in our backyard pool, none of which I know the proper names for. Some I’m pretty sure I even made up as I went along. But I loved it! The rest of the pool cleared out and I found myself alone in my last few laps, in my own little sound-proof world (thanks, wax earplugs), my heart beating out of my chest as I finished one lap and geared up for another.

photo 2Finally, as I glanced behind me at the clock to see how long I’d been in, the poor teenaged lifeguard who had been standing there waving at me since I couldn’t hear her finally got my attention: “I’m sorry but we have to close the pool because of the lightning storm!”

I hadn’t even noticed, but it was indeed storming badly outside, so I hopped out of the pool, toweled off, changed into dry clothes and relaxed in the locker room for a minute: I felt ike I’d worked out hard but I wasn’t sweaty and gross like after a run; I was just fresh and dry and blissed out on an endorphin high!

So overall, I’d give swimming an A++. I cannot wait to go back! How about you? Do you swim for cross training? Any triathletes (or tri’s in training) out there? Let me hear it!

3 towns, 10 miles, 1 bathroom break

/ Jess / 12 Comments

This week marked week 4 of marathon training, and it passed pretty unremarkably, until yesterday that is… let me explain:

Since it’s been a month, this was my first experience of training while PMS’ing. Which… WOW. That’s all I can really say. I don’t know whether my husband is ready to walk out or just throw a chocolate cake at me and be done with it. The combination of waking up early, being sore all the time and not eating my usual comfort foods made the holy trifecta of awful, and my hormone swings on top of everything else made it a pretty angry week.

My sucky run on Tuesday was mitigated only by the fact that I got to wear fun new Brooks “Run Happy” shorts that totally matched my shoes:

photo 12That smile? Yeah, it’s fake.

It was a hard 3 miles and my time was physically embarrassing, but it was done. So I went to bed angry. Then Wednesday I did yoga on the beach with some friends instead of running for my last “crosstraining instead of running Wednesday” and found myself doing some not-very-zen things like cursing the instructor and wishing I could be on the boardwalk eating curly fries and lobster rolls instead of getting sand where sand should not go with a bunch of granola-chomping hippies. Thankfully, the friends I did the class with were of the same mind, so things worked out.

photo

We call ourselves the Yoga Misfits and we’re thinking of getting jackets made.

Thursday was pretty much the worst day ever. Work was a nightmare, my hormones were raging, and I physically couldn’t bring myself to break through it and go for a run. I promised myself I’d go first thing Friday, but to keep myself from murdering someone, I instead had some chocolate cake and went to bed angry at 9:30. I considered it a public service.

It worked, because Friday morning I turned a corner. I churned out 3 faster miles and rocked out to some “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and even had a woman drive by and applaud me (her kid in the car seat behind her was clapping too)! That gave me some good motivation to rock my long run, so I plotted a course that took me through 3 nearby towns, went to bed early Saturday, woke up early Sunday and had hubby drive me 10 miles out to begin my first double-digit run on this training schedule!

It was overcast and actually kind of cool out, which was a very nice change from the 85 degrees I’ve been running in the past few weeks. However, it was still humid as hell. And so I was drenched by about mile 2, which I discovered when I stopped for an emergency bathroom break:

photo 5

When will I learn and not pick light colored shorts?

Even despite the beautiful view, the good pacing, and a solid fueling plan, I had soaked clean through my shorts, thus rendering null and void any cool points I had accumulated up til then.

I kept at it though and felt OK til about mile 6. Glancing at my watch, I realized I’d been running for more than an hour so I took a break and grabbed some water from my belt to wash down some Sport Beans. That’s where the day took a turn.

The bottle I carried my water in had been stored in the cabinet I keep all of my scented candles in, too. And it also gets very hot there. Thanks to osmosis, the various candle scents had permeated the plastic of my little handheld Nathan water bottle, making my water taste like every damn Yankee Candle I ever owned.

inVAGKCJhnwwxWhich tastes like exactly what you think it does.

After taking my first horrible gulp of funk-water, I gagged on the side of the road and panicked: I still had at least 2 more miles to the Quick Check I had planned on getting water from, and these Sport Beans had turned my mouth into a foul pasty desert!! But I sucked it up (literally), swished some nasty candle-water around my mouth to keep it hydrated, and walk/jogged the next 2 miles to get fresh water.

When I arrived at Quick Check, I downed a bottle of water so fast I gave myself a brain freeze, then walked back outside to find that it was POURING! So I took it as a sign and waited, stretching for a good 5 minutes while the rain subsided. Once it cleared, I set out again and thought “2 more miles! You can do 2 more miles, that’s nothing!” and sure enough, I did! I wanted to quit a few times, but I found that this 10 miler was much better than the 10 miler I did while training for my last half. Then, I wanted to give up at 8 and had to walk almost the entire last 2 miles. But yesterday I pushed through, found a few new songs on my running playlist and made it all the way to my parents’ house at mile 10.00, where I promptly collapsed in a heap of hair and sweat.

photo 4…so much sweat.

So while I was a little frustrated with how much I had to walk after the candle-water incident, I’m pretty proud of my final push. It was a strong finish to an otherwise so-so run, and I’ll take it!

However, last night while basking in my post-long-run bliss and updating my training diary, I discovered that I’d read it wrong: as it turns out, I was only supposed to do 9 miles yesterday. 10 is next week’s long run. So that means I have to do this all over again.

giphy

Excuse me while I go sit in the corner and rock back and forth, crying and laughing uncontrollably.

How did your week go? Any training milestones you’re proud of? Have you ever read your training calendar wrong and screwed yourself? Please tell me I’m not the only one!

Find Your Balance

/ Jess / 5 Comments

With marathon training in full swing, I’m starting to notice a pattern: it’s all about balance! If I work too hard one day, I set myself back for 3. Read on!

So Week 3 started off a little slow: my rest day Monday turned into rest day Tuesday too because my knees were dying from the beating they took on the treadmill Sunday. 7 miles on the mill was a nice accomplishment, but DAMN. So Wednesday I hit the speedwork hard (on the treadmill too, will I ever learn?) and found the extra day of rest really paid off: I was coasting through 2 minute intervals that beat my usual 11-12 minute per mile pace by almost 4 full minutes! After a warm up jog I did 2 rounds of 2 minute sprints at 9:30, 8:57, and 8:34 (!!) broken up by 90 seconds of fast walk breaks. And I could have kept on going if it weren’t for that pesky “work” thing!

Feeling good, I opted to plow straight through the weekend with activity every day to make up for that missing day. So I kicked off my 4 day weekend Thursday with a full hour of cross training: HIIT with Jillian and the Biggest Loser Last Chance Workout DVD.

photowhile listening to old school hip hop instead of Jillian’s voice.

After my workout, I was all set to enjoy a “me” day like a real housewife of NJ and I ended up wandering around a mall for 3 hours, touching everything and buying nothing. My legs started to get that post-workout weakness in the afternoon, so I refueled at Panera and ran (walked?) some more errands and made it home by about 5, logging around 4 miles of walking throughout the day. And that’s where the wheels kinda fell off the wagon.

Friday morning, I felt like rusty metal. I was supposed to do 3 miles, but I opted instead for a shakeout mile to get things flowing again and surprised myself with a 10:00 mile, even. The skies opened up for the next 7 hours so after a day of BBQ’ing, I walked the other 2 miles that night at the park after the rain cleared for our local fireworks show and made my 3 miles.

Come 8:30AM Saturday, I was raring to go (hey, it turns out resting really does work!) so I brought the bike down the park with the hubby. It was one of those “let’s see how far I get” days, and when I found I was able to ride on my old waterfront running path now that it was all fixed up post-Hurricane Sandy, I just couldn’t help myself and did a full 10K on the bike in 38 minutes!

photo 3I didn’t have enough hands for the .2 so just use your imagination.

But the 20-30mph wind gusts ended up shredding my legs and Sunday’s long run was NOT happening when my alarm went off at 7:30am. I got .12 miles in before the heat and the intense pains coming from my good knee scared the hell out of me, and I opted to try again later that night when it was cooler and my legs had a true rest. So I did nothing for the rest of the day except nap on the couch and visit the farmer’s market for some fresh avocados. After some yummy Amy’s Organic tamales for dinner (with my patent pending homemade guacamole!), I hit the pavement at around 8:30 and truly enjoyed my 5 miler around town! It was cooler and quiet, traffic was calm, and I coasted through all 5 miles! I did end up sprinting through the last mile, partially because my route took me next to my church which is super creepy at night.

photo 2like, Scooby-Doo level creepy

After some stretching and foam rolling, I hit the hay and week 3 was complete! It wasn’t very pretty, but it got done. I realize I need to re-integrate that extra day of running in the middle of the week – the cross training is great, but I don’t want my speed and endurance to suffer for it. It’s all about balance though, and I need to make sure that I keep the extra work in there but in smaller doses.

How is your training going? Are you noticing any patterns in your workouts? Any lessons to be learned outside of your usual fitness-based goals? Share with me in the comments!

A Polish 5K = 3.5 Miles

/ Jess / 3 Comments

Glossing over the fact that I lied to you last week when I said I would blog at least once a day (sorry!), this weekend was another eventful and active 48 hours that I can’t wait to tell you about!

It started on Saturday morning at our town’s local 5k. This is a fun one – usually only about 100 people at the most show up for a few hot, steamy miles around our town in support of our local first aid and fire department, ending at the swim club for a BBQ and a free day at the pool. Delightful! Or, it would have been delightful if it weren’t about 100 degrees by the time the gun went off at 9am. And if someone had monitored the course mapping. Because I about dropped dead when a volunteer at the 3.1 mile marker told me “You’re almost there, just another half mile over that hill!”

Yes, it turns out at Polish 5K is 3.5 miles.

the-more-you-knowOr at least it is in our town.

Either way, I finished, running through every damn firehose they had out on the course with my cousin who’s run this thing pretty much every year since it started – and it was a good time!

photo 4she posted this on IG with the hashtag #imoldershestaller

After the race, we spent a few hours blissfully hanging out in the pool – complete with high dive action! I faced my fears and did a half a cannonball off the highest board they have, but when my contact lens tried to make a break for it out of my eyeball as soon as I hit the water on my second jump, I called it a day.

photo 1point those toes!

I spent the rest of the day napping and watching Dirty Jobs because I secretly wish I was married to Mike Rowe, and told myself to prepare for the 7 miles I had to do in the morning.

The number 7 was on the schedule, but it scared me. I’d only run that distance a few times before for half marathon training. That kind of distance just doesn’t come naturally,  you know what I mean? Like I’m not one of those people that laces up after work and disappears for 7 miles. My town isn’t even that wide across, for crying out loud. BUT – when I opened my eyes at 8am Sunday, I told myself that this was the moment that would make or break my training. I could either roll over and say “Screw it, I’ll do it tomorrow” and have even less motivation on a Monday, or I could pop out of bed, get dressed, shut up and run the damn 7 miles because I have to run 26.2 in a few months and skipping this 7 won’t do me any favors.

I’m proud to say I went for option #2 and ran 7 miles – on a treadmill! By the time I finished my pre-long-run ablutions, it was about 92 degrees and 93% humidity. I was not about to die at mile 3, so I headed to the Y and picked a corner treadmill, where I proceeded to sweat my ASS off. Seriously, it looked like someone took a garden hose to the damn console by like the first mile. I was equal parts disgusted and impressed.

photo 2Note the one dry spot of the whole outfit near my right boob.

Full disclosure: I walked at least once a mile because I was seriously feeling the humidity. The Y – while temperature controlled – is still a really humid place. But I did the full mileage, even after doing 3.5 the day before. The most demoralizing part was having to re-start the treadmill after the first 60 minute time limit ended to finish the last 2 miles… It took a lot of discipline to hit start again, but I did it, and dammit, I earned the birthday cake I ate at my friend’s kid’s birthday bbq later that day.

The best part about running 7 miles and going to a BBQ? Holding it together for the length of the party just to come home and jump into compression socks before passing out on the couch for 2 hours:

photo 3No, seriously. I didn’t even change out of my dress.

So that was my active weekend – what was yours like? 🙂