Parks and Rec

Exercise: 50 mins elliptical, arms and back

Just a quick drop in. If you're at all interested in seeing the park I run through, when I get to run :(, watch this last episode of Parks and Recreation. Or older episodes of My Name is Earl, Modern Family, The League, Arrested Development and pretty much any other show...ha. Sometimes I'm so proud of my little corner of the ghetto. But beware, I hear there are man eating coyotes there stalking cute couples ;)

Gradual Separation

Exercise: 84 boring minutes on the elliptical

Right now I'm blogging from Little Man's preschool (and eating what's left of his lunch) where I've been spending my Tuesday's and Thursdays the last 3 weeks. The preschool requires a gradual separation, meaning the parents don't just drop the kids off and go, we stay until the children are ready for us to leave. The school administrators think it makes the kids more confident. I think it's great but sometimes I wish I could just leave him and he'd butch up. ;)

The process takes longer for some children and I'm pretty sure I'll be one of the last parents to leave. Little Man is a little clingy. I do have faith he'll let me leave soon. He loves school and constantly asks to "Go school Now? Go paint, play doh, trucks!"

Today I'm doing my second trial separation; I just told little man I was going to the car and would be right back, but I'm just sitting in a separate room. If he gets upset I can get to him quickly. If things go well the next separation will be a bit longer until I eventually leave him on his own and can run errands or workout independently for the first time in 2 1/2 years! I don't want to rush him but the idea of free time gets me super excited.

Music Man has been out of town all week so I've been very busy with the Little Man, hence my excitement for getting some free time. My workouts have been all over the place since I can't run and can only use the elliptical when the Little dude is sleeping, otherwise he gets too intrigued by it and wants to play on it too. So I've been working out some early mornings and some late nights depending on schedule. I can't wait to have MM back and to be able to run again!!!

Hope you all are well and I leave you with some fuzzy pics of Little Man enjoying school.

Slow Feet, Quick Feet, Well Feet, Sick Feet

Exercise: rest and healing

So I'm down and out due to my big toe. It's crazy how something as insignificant as a toe can completely derail plans. It's just an ingrown toenail but I wasn't smart and continued to run on it hoping it would just go away on it's own. No such luck. It got super infected and ridiculously painful. Nice.

So now, no running or heavy workouts for me for 10 days or until the infection is gone. Luckily I can still use the elliptical or I might lose my mind. I have surgery to completely stop ingrown toenails, because I'm prone to them, scheduled for mid November. This is immediately following the marathon, but if the toe doesn't heal I have to move the surgery up and it has about a 4 week healing time. It depresses me just thinking about it.

The good news is I LOVE my doctor! I have an HMO so was just randomly assigned a specialist but he couldn't be a better fit. He explained to me that surgery was imminent but respected my wishes to hold off until post marathon. Then he asked how many marathons I had run and how many more I planned to run. I told him I was hoping to move onto ultras and he asked if I had any interest in running Badwater!?!? I have never had a casual conversation with someone that randomly brought up Badwater. It's on my bucket list so I found it so cool.

It ends up he's an ultra hiker, often logging 30+ mile days. He's hiked Whitney Portal where Badwater ends and he's done many hikes along the PCT which I found extra interesting because I'm currently reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed (and loving it.) He even stopped in the middle of the appointment to give me camping and hiking tips which eased the pain of having my toe poked :) He stopped cutting into my toe to google this:

Source

He was great at distracting from my pain. 

The lame news, besides my toe sucking, is I may have to drop from the full Malibu Marathon to the half or drop out all together depending on my dang toe. I hope to maintain my fitness with the elliptical but am not looking forward to being stuck inside indefinitely. I'm sure I'm being a tad dramatic but that's how I roll. 

Hope you all are having a rad weekend!

Toe Up

Exercise: active rest, walk, bike, etc.

Yesterday I opted to run 8 miles instead of tackling a long run. You always hear it's better to under train than over train and my training has been pretty spot on thus far so a shorter run was just fine. And I'm so glad I only did 8 because it was effing torture.

I don't want to get too graphic, but by mile 4 I thought my insides were going to explode. I kept having to stop and walk until I got to the nearest restroom over a mile away. It didn't offer any relief so I jog/ walked the rest of the way home. Longest 8 miler ever, took me almost 90 minutes to complete. Ughhh.

Today I planned to run but I've been running with a painful big toe the last few days that has now become grossly infected. Yay. I'm hoping to get into a podiatrist today but am so nervous to get diagnosed because I'm pretty sure I won't be running for awhile. Never good to hear during Marathon training. Or ever really.

This So Cal cloudy, gloomy day perfectly reflects my attitude. I'm feeling very sorry for myself at the moment. Time to turn my focus to being grateful for all the awesomeness in my life.

I'll let you know how it goes...

Tying Knots

Exercise: hoping to get in a midday nap elliptical and weight session

While I was in Vegas I had a 16 mile run on the schedule but abandoned it to do more important things like swimming, eating at buffets, drinking margaritas and watching two of my favorite people tie the knot. I did run 10 miles and probably walked a few miles but it's not the same. Music man will be out of town next weekend and throughout the following week so I plan to do my long run of 17 miles Friday or Saturday. I'm wondering if I should try to do another longish run tomorrow; like 12? Or is that mileage too much too close?

By the way, I found a discount for the Malibu Marathon and decided to go for it. It's November 11th so I know I have enough time to train, it's just getting the long runs in that is difficult. Training for the Bulldog built up my base so I just need to expand on that. We don't have any other big trips, events or awesome Vegas weddings planned for the near future so I should be able to remain consistent up until the race.

And speaking of awesome Vegas weddings; here are a few photos from the night. I have some other faves to post when I get a chance

Have an awesome week!

Not Quite Clandestine

Exercise: 10 super slow miles in North Las Vegas

Sleep was non-existent last night due to a toddler and husband that are very particular to sleeping in their own beds. I'm sure the few beers and glass of wine I had didn't help either :) But I was pretty exhausted this morning. I was mentally done with my run before I even started but I powered through for 10 miles. Slow but done!

I'm loosely following a training plan that had me running 16 miles today and there was just no way. Music Man and I are staying on the strip tonight so I told him we had to walk 6 miles to make up the difference. 6 miles in fancy shoes, not sure how that will go down... see ya tomorrow blisters.

Tonight's festivities include a very hush-hush wedding!!! Makes the occasion so much more fun that it's an intimate affair. I offered to prepare the bouquet and the bride allowed me to do it. So much fun having a small hand in the preparation.

That's all for now. Have an awesome Saturday!

New Hairs

Stability Ball Workout