A bit of an unplanned rest.

I've had a bit of a setback in my running goal for this month.  :(

Last Saturday I went out for my usual "long" run of 5 miles at a very easy pace - no big deal, each of the two weeks before I'd also done a 5 miler. Felt good during the run itself, but after my shower I noticed myself limping a bit, and as the day went on it became clear that I'd somehow injured the muscle on the inside back part of my left knee.

That's where it hurts.

I rested on Sunday and Monday, and went to the gym on Tuesday to try running again - and after only one mile I started to wince every time my foot hit the tread, so I stopped and did the elliptical instead. I meant to try again on Friday or Saturday - but we've been really busy and I just didn't have time.

So the first week of April I did 15 miles, the second week was 15 miles, and then this third week, instead of being 18 miles like I'd planned, was only 1 mile. Sigh. I guess the most important thing is to let it heal. And I know that there are so many truly awful sports injuries (thinking of you, collarbone-breaking bike-racing friend, you know who you are!) so I do count myself lucky that this is minor. I've got climbing class tomorrow - here's hoping for no injuries in THAT! :)

Over halfway there! Woo-hoo!!!

I am so so so excited to announce that over $6,000 has been raised so far in the course of this Year of Racing (Slowly)! We're over halfway there! (With the fundraising, that is. I still have way more than half of the racing to do!)

Just in case you find it interesting, here's a few stats about the fundraising so far:

Number of Donations: 29
Smallest Donation: $0.25
Biggest Donation: $3,000.00
Median Donation: $94.10

Here's a little chart showing the amount and number of gifts:

I'm so thankful to each and every person who has given, whether a little or a lot! While so much has been raised so far, there is still more to go, so if you haven't given yet but would like to, please click on the "Donate" tab above!

Four of the envelopes full of funds to be sent to the nonprofits! 

March Training Recap

March 2012 Stats:

• 17 days working out 
• 48 miles running
• 4 strength training sessions

Well, that's a short list compared to last month; no elliptical, no stairclimber, no swimming, no climbing wall, and I didn't track my walks, though I know I did take some with Eliana given the gorgeous weather we had in March. But I'm really happy about the running numbers - I more than doubled my running mileage over the previous month! I didn't quite meet my actual goal of running four times a week; instead, with 15 runs in 31 days, I averaged about 3.4 runs a week. But that's still so much better than I had been doing!


My other goal for March was to "begin incorporating some strength training into my workouts" - and thanks to the vagueness of this goal, I could say that I technically met it. But...on the 2nd of March I met with a personal trainer who gave me a series of strength training exercises to do - and I dutifully did them on the 5th, the 8th, and the 12th. But then 3 days went by, then 4, 5, 6, 7...and I felt like I'd failed and needed to restart but had no impetus to do it. But the freshness of a new month is here!


Goals for April: 16 runs for a total of 60 miles! 8 strength training sessions! And (here's the one I'm really excited about) I've signed up for the climbing class at EAC, so 4 ninety minute sessions on the climbing wall! The first session is tonight. I anticipate being quite sore afterwards. :)


Looking farther ahead, in May I'll need to start swimming in preparation for the sprint triathlon I'm doing on June 10th - oh, swimming, the bane of my triathlete existence! There have been some epic swimming travails in the past, I'll be sure to write a post about them sometime during this year.