Friday night on Iowa Avenue

When my brother’s group of friends wanted to leave the perfectly chill beer garden of Joe’s Place and go to Gabes, of all places, I questioned their sanity. Apparently the back door to the bar I remember as an armpit of a venue (though had good shows upstairs) has been renovated and is now known as the “Picador.”

We walked in via the back alley and where piles of dumpsters reeking of puke and urine used to be have now been replaced by roughly constructed tables with a few christmas tree lights strung up for added effect. I have to say, I was speechless. The inside is much improved also… people actually have teeth and possibly showered in the last 72 hours. The drinks were strong and the music wasn’t too loud. They served Boulevard, which is my favorite beer and I can’t get in Chicago. A large mural has been painted over the entire back wall of the building and looks pretty cool actually!

And in true Big 10 college fashion, we finished up the night by getting Pokey Sticks. But not before the girls wandered off to pee behind some random building and passing many stumbling college students as the bars closed.

All in all, a good night.

Cross training blahs

Thanks to all of you for asking about the calf injury!  It’s actually going really well.  I feel like I could go back to running already but I have to remind myself that I need time to heal.  It hasn’t hurt and I’ve been really nice to my muscles with daily icing, rest, and walking suuuuuper slow.

This week I lost a day when I just couldn’t get up to change into work out clothes after waking up from a nap.  I’m on my ICU month and am working as a sub-intern on the Coronary Care Unit.  It’s been really great and I’m getting to manage all kinds of cool heart stuff like post- heart attacks and dealing with unstable heart rhythms.  It gets really cerebral at times with reading EKGs, prescribing arrhythmics, concurrently managing failing kidneys, heart failure, high blood pressure, sepsis, ventilators, etc.  Let’s just say I have a whole new appreciation for people who do critical care.

The hours have been really good though, and it allows me time to keep up with exercising.  Problem is, I’ve only trained twice this week so far!  I did a 30 minute hill training on a stationary bike on Tuesday, which was great.  Wednesday I napped on the couch while watching Lord of the Rings instead of doing my cross training. 

Today I tried to make up yesterday’s laziness by swimming for 50 minutes.  I only made it to 35 minutes before my calves started twitching and I got out.  My calves have never liked swimming, they always seem to cramp up if I swim over 20 minutes.  For a few laps, I switched to using my arms while trying to keep my core afloat and dragging my legs for resistance.  When I tried going back to full leg and arm strokes, back came the muscle twitches. 

So the plan for the rest of the week is to bike tomorrow, maybe row on Saturday, then probably bike for 90 minutes on Sunday.  Whatever my schedule says for mileage, I multiply that by 10 and do some form of calf-sparing exercise for that many minutes.

Somewhere in here I have to find time to study!  My ICU test is next Friday and I’m taking step 2 of my licensing exam at the end of August.  The application time for internship is starting so my days are filled with worry about letters of recommendation, personal statements, perfecting my CV, things like that.  But I’m going to see the new Harry Potter movie tomorrow (WAHOOOOO!) back in Iowa City so that will be awesome.  Hopefully I can start running again soon, it’s really the best way for me to beat all that stress!

Week 1 Recap

Welcome to my second post! I decided to start this blog as I begin training for my marathon. Plus I’d really like to keep in touch with all of you who may read this just to let you know how I’m doing, what’s new with me, and to assure you that I didn’t fall off the face of the earth 🙂

This week has been good so far. Today I figured the 8 mile run would be no problem, as I easily ran 8 miles a week or 2 ago. Typically I run either around my neighborhood for short runs (I have a 3,4, and 5 mile loops, the Salt Creek Trail, or the Lakefront Trail. Today I decided to run the Lakefront and loop around Navy Pier. The thing about running in Chicago is there are NO HILLS. AT ALL. But back to that later.

The run was really good, I didn’t feel like running but jogged along anyway. On my 5 mile run this week my right ankle bothered me, but it was ok on the next 3 mile run and hasn’t been acting up. During the run, I felt like my left calf was a little tight but I figured it would stretch out as I ran. Which was mostly true, until…

I was running back up north on the trail alongside North Avenue beach just in sight of the Lake Front Theater when I felt a painful Pop! in my left calf. Now hopping on my right leg and pulling over to stretch out on some bike racks, I immediately knew what happened. I tore some muscle! Oh no! Not again!

This all started back in high school when I was a diver and had to go to physical therapy for it. Then it happened again just after my freshman year of college, on the same leg. In the past 5 or 6 years it will occasionally act up, just twitch a bit, but has never been painful. This pop! was by no means excruciating, but definitely surprising.

So I stretched out for a bit and didn’t feel any pain. I tested walking, still no pain. I sped up a bit and was able to half-jog with no pain so I sped up more and… little pop! Again, I felt pain only when the popping sensation occurred. Thank God I was able to walk the rest of the way to my car! Like I mentioned, there are no hills in Chicago so it’s hard to work your calves unless you do sprints or sand running (or treadmills but who wants that?) My guess is that this happened from not stretching, overuse, and lack of hill training leading to weak muscles 😦

If this happened a few years ago when I was training for my first marathon (where I got patellar tendonitis) I would probably be fuming and worried about how I’d finish and am sure I would have gotten discouraged. But I refuse to let this stop me or stress me out! My plan is to lay off running for this week and swim, spin, and row instead. As I write this, I am icing my calf with a bag of frozen edamame (hey, it’s been a while since I’ve been injured and my reusable cold packs were room temp!) and still feel optimistic. I’m going to be sure to eat my daily requirement of protein and stretch out as much as possible. So basically, I’m going to avoid past mistakes and take care of the problem before it gets any worse.

A Day of Firsts!

Today (actually Monday July 16, 2007) I officially kicked off my first day of marathon training for the Tulsa Route 66 Marathon, which I plan on running in November. The reason the “Firsts” in my title is plural is because this is also my first blog 🙂 Well, sort of. A friend of mine convinced me to set up a profile on Myspace last year so I posted a few entries there, which has been a lot of fun so far! After this weekend where I met up with a bunch of friends with their own blogs, I decided to give in and start my own. Plus it’s a great way for me to let all of you know how I’m doing… should you be interested!!

As I mentioned, I began my marathon training today. A little background:
– My first “runner’s high” was when I was hiking in Kentucky as a teenager, but I didn’t realize what it was- I just thought it was cool and never forgot about that
– I began running in college to fulfill my physical training requirement, around age 20
– When I began to run, I realized that I no longer had dreams about running without feeling tired…they had became reality
– While training for my first marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon in 2003, I got shin splints and had to cut back on my mileage
– With the cutback in mileage, I tried to make up those miles later in training but then got patellar tendonitis
– It didn’t heal in time for the marathon so I ran (um, actually limped) for 15 miles. That hurt a lot.
– Whatever I did to my knees during that marathon messed them up for a year or so and had to give up running for over a year
– But I never gave up the idea of running a marathon!

And now you find me here today, running the first 3 miles of an 18-week training schedule from www.halhigdon.com! I’m following the Novice 2 schedule as I’ve already completed (well, mostly stuck to) the Spring Training schedule from the same site. With being in school it was hard to follow the regimented running schedule and to find time to run nearly every day! But I did run some fun races around the Chicago area. I’d have to say my favorite was the Run for the Zoo 10 K so far since the course went through the Lincoln Park zoo and up on the Lakeshore trail. Plus the shirt is this cool camouflage. But the race where I surprised myself the most was my first 10 mile run, the Solder Field race that ended on the 50 yard line. That morning was a perfect overcast, cool day and though I underestimated my ability and saved too much, it felt great. And of all the races I’ve run so far this season the photographers have managed to miss getting a photo! I only mention it since I’d post one here on my first blog, but, alas, you’ll just have to take my word for it 🙂

How was my first 3 mile run of my first day of my first marathon that I’m actually going to finish injury-free? Well, it was hot and humid but that’s how Chicago’s been lately. Plus I’m a night person and thus a night runner so I wait until the 7-8 PM cool off to lace up my Asics. I really should learn to wake up early and get it done before the sun superheats all the breathable air, but I highly, highly doubt that will happen. Three years of a 5 AM job in college and from January-March of this year I had to get up even earlier for my surgery rotation…and I am still not a morning person. So there it is. I run at night.

Today I discovered that the song “Tarantula” from the new Smashing Pumpkins album “Zeitgeist” was the perfect tempo to match my stride so I listened to it about 3 times while rounding back towards my apartment. But I still keep Daddy Yankee’s “Impacto Remix” as my iPod’s secret weapon when my energy is totally spent. At least I didn’t have to pull that song out today!

Yes, well, I believe that should be enough for today. I can already feel the procrastinator in me pleading to keep typing and not go study up on EKGs but this is all going to be an exercise in willpower as well. Adios to blog numero uno!