Down but not out!

I went to the doctor today to find out that I have some tendonitis in my ankle/achilles area. It really isn't that bad but the doctor suggested that I take it easy for two weeks. That means no high-impact activities, sadly that includes basketball and of course running! After the two weeks, I can ease back into my normal workout regimen. He did say I can participate in lower impact activities like walking, biking, and swimming. I am sooo going to be doing those things these next two weeks! One thing that COMPLETELY bums me out is that due to these new restrictions, I won't be able to participate in the Soldier Field 10 Mile race at the end of this month. I was so excited to go out and finish my first long distance run! This will be the second time I will have to bow out of a race because of health issues (Hot Chocolate 15K '09 - H1N1). I keep telling myself that this year is about the marathon. I am not training all hard to get up to a 10 mile race. I want the entire 26.2! And if I want it, then I have to know when to take a step back and let my body heal itself. Apparently, this is one of those times. I know it will be worth it in the end. And besides, I don't have to wait much longer for another shot at a long distance race. I am registered for the North Shore 1/2 Marathon in mid-June. First thing is first. Get healthy enough and back in running shape after these two weeks, then get ready for that run.

Thank you for all the support on Twitter and DailyMile about my injury. There really is strength in numbers :)

In better news, chicagonow.com's "Marathon Miss Fit" has allowed me to adverstise my fundraising efforts on her blog! Thank you so much Connie for getting my story out about my dad! Here is the link: Running Feet, Helping Hands

Recovering quicker than expected...

I started writing a blog post this morning about how incredibly sore I was from yesterday's 10 mile run. Both of my calves were pretty much cramping up all day and night yesterday, even after a 30 minute post-run stretch session and a very long cold shower. I was going to write about how I realized how much harder this has all just become. How I am finally realizing what I am getting into. How I now see why this marathon idea is just crazy. Then, something wild happened. I went on along with my usual Sunday. Jaz and I went to church, bought groceries, took a nap, hung out with my Mike, Tracy, Haley (my goddaughter), and Aiden, visited my nieces at my mom's house, then ate dinner at Entourage with Jaz. I thought for sure I would be hurting throughout the day, and maybe even into tomorrow. But oddly enough, I was pretty ok. There were still lingering effects from yesterday's run, but for the most part, I was pretty well recovered. One good night sleep (which may not happen tonight as I am looking at 12:02AM on my system clock) and I should be good to workout the next day.

Now that I have my legs under me again today I think my physical damage has been repaired, but now onto the psychological damage to fix. Ten miles was the longest I have ever run, and obviously will not be the longest I'd ever run. In the next couple months I'll be going much further, and once the CARA team training starts in June, I'll end up getting up to 20 miles. So, at some point I'll be running twice the distance I ran yesterday. Oh dear! I am starting to realize the magnitude of this race, and I am starting to get scared. As I mentioned in my Daily Mile post about my 10 mile run, I have friended many good running resources on Twitter and Daily Mile who I am so grateful for. These people are my motivation because I know at some point in their running career, they were at this same point in their training and may have had similar doubts and worries. And now they are running 10-15 miles with no issue. Why can't that be me? I know that it can't happen now, but it can happen over time if I stick to it. I will continue to use them as my inspiration...here are a couple of the people who inspire my running:

Chanthana - Twitter/DailyMile

Sergio - Twitter/DailyMile

Mark - Twitter

Freddy - Twitter/DailyMile

Jordan - Twitter/DailyMile

Brian - DailyMile

Time to rest up...and get ready for another week of training! Oh yeah...and one more source of motivation:

Friday night/Saturday Morning Thoughts

Forgive me...I have a bunch of things flying through my head, and I just wanted to write them down. This may end up being the most incoherent blog post ever.

Bulls: what the hell!? Lose to the NETS? In DOUBLE OVERTIME? Granted there were some crap calls (and no-calls) in the game, but how are you going to be the team that the 12-win Nets have TWO wins over this season? Sad. Of course I hope you make it to the playoffs to see some more basketball from my team, but at least make an effort and look like you want it! You can't tell me that the Nets really cause THAT much of a match-up problem for you! You were lucky to even have squeaked by the 2011 Cavs (aka 'sans Lebron'). Yet again, another lost opportunity to make up some ground, or even lead in the 8th spot of the Eastern conference. You're better than that!

Fantasy Leagues: Won my NBA Fantasy League (C'MON SON!) with Jaz's cousins and friends from California.

That's right, I won by ONE MINUTE in the Minutes category. I'm glad I picked up some players (Ryan Gomes, Kyle Lowry, Anthony Morrow, and Vince Carter..yeah, that's right!) to give me more stats on that last Sunday!

Joined a baseball fantasy league representing my site HobbyKings.com in the Clash of the Trading Forums league. I honestly don't know what I am doing, but I am enjoying it, and enjoying baseball a little more.

Remember I won my Fantasy Football league too with my co-workers this past season. Could it be a clean sweep?

Running: If I run tomorrow (later today) I will have run 5 times this week Sun-Sat with 2 long runs (8mi on Sun, 9mi on Sat). I think I'll be ready to run today, it just amazes me that I can actually run this much now. Even if I move my long run to Sunday, just to know I can run multiple miles multiple times a week is such a huge accomplishment! I hung out with my nephews tonight and Eli was talking to me about how he wants to run a 5K now because he saw his dad do it. I really want him to do it, because he says he feels happy or "pumped" when he runs. That's how I feel too, buddy!

Twitter: I'm pretty sure I'm addicted now. I have come across many interesting people on twitter who help motivate me through my marathon training. It is actually a cool "little" (it's not little at all) Chicago running community on Twitter. Many of them inspire me to become a better runner or at the very least, prepared for the marathon. Over 3000 tweets later, and I am finally admitting that I have a problem.

OK, I think my mind has been emptied out, and now I can sleep. Busy weekend and then where are we off to next weekend? Tell 'em Jay-Z, Alicia, and apparently Lil Mama

Something new about something new

I ran on Saturday morning around my mom's neighborhood. I ended up going a total of 5 miles a little over an hour. I have started not wearing an iPod while running. Surprisingly I am not finding myself bored without the music. I find myself concentrating more on my form and posture. After Christine sent me information on Chi Running I have been trying to figure out what is the best running technique works for me. I've been incorporating some of the methods mentioned in Chi running, like leaning, swinging my arms properly, keeping lower back loose, etc. Just like I did last year, I quickly realized what I was missing over the winter months. I've been talking about running with so many people during the winter, I forgot how much I actually enjoyed it. This year, I've got a little added motivation and support group. After I signed up for the marathon at the beginning of February [dry heave], I started following some people on twitter. Some of my favorites to follow are @gargal, @runnergirl33, @awboonstra, and of course @FleetFeetChgo, and @chanthana amongst others. It's amazing how supportive internet strangers can be about running. So I send tweets to them about their training and they do the same for me. It's quite an interesting and supportive community, and it's definitely something different than what I had the past couple of years. So hopefully it all pays off, especially with the marathon coming up in October [dizziness].

Information overload

There are so many things in my head and I just can't seem to keep them straight sometimes.  I'm sitting here floating through internet space on Facebook, Twitter, HobbyKings, Ebay, Email, Google Reader, while listening to my new You Tube favorite singer: Melissa Polinar.  It just feels like information overload, almost to the point where I can't get my thoughts straight.  I'm not trying to be profound or anything like that...I just feel stuck.  You ever have that feeling?