I've been running outside all winter for a couple of years. Traction devices help get me through.
I hate the treadmill with the white hot passion of a thousand suns. And before I was informed about running outside in the winter safely, I would slog along on the dreadmill for countless boring miles each winter. Continue reading
Filed under F*cking Freezing Frozen Lake Half Marathon, Injuries, Knees, running, Shoes, Tips & Tricks
Stretching does a body good, especially if said body is injury-prone.
I’ve picked a hell of a goal race for coming back from my latest injury — a half marathon in Chicago at the end of January. Continue reading
Comments Off
Filed under F*cking Freezing Frozen Lake Half Marathon, Injuries, Races, shin splints, Shoes, Time to replace
Doing jumping jacks to stay warm during a pit stop along Bike the Drive. Stupid.
Usually my injuries are just dumb luck. The one I have now is because I was just plain dumb.
Bike the Drive 2011 was particularly chilly this year, and our little one was cold. To warm her up, we did jumping jacks. Continue reading
Filed under Bike the Drive, Cycling, Cycling shoes, Injuries
A Roscoe Village Bikes staffer teaches me how to use my new pedals and shoes.
My cyclist husband-to-be got me clipless pedals for Christmas; he’s been trying to get me on that bandwagon for nearly a year now. I resisted, thanks to my clumsiness, but it’s hard to say no when they’re wrapped up so nicely!
He also got me some pretty sweet triathlon shoes, but they were too small for my big ol’ clown feet. (It turns out Pearl Izumi apparently doesn’t make cycling shoes for women with size 10 feet. Hmpf.) Continue reading
Filed under Cycling, Cycling shoes
More people are running barefoot. (credit: JohnKochmanski, flickr.com)
There’s been a lot of hype recently about running naturally, the way the human body did when we were trying to catch prey (or, more likely, to keep from becoming prey).
The DePaul graduate students I help the Huffington Post’s Craig Kanalley teach have inspired me to look more deeply at a topic that’s always interested me: barefoot running. Continue reading
My old running shoes sat in the dumpster after I threw them out.
[Editor's note: I was away on vacation and it was so expensive to use the Internet, I had to forgo blogging for a week. This post is what I finished up from a March 28 draft. Thanks for checking in while I was away!]
I have had a particularly bad year when it comes to the injuries. Last May I had hip surgery, after which I fell off my bike and got some gnarly road rash, and then I sprained my ankle when I got the all-clear to run again.
The shoe on the left is the correct way to tie your shoes -- so the bow lays across, in a perpendicular manner.
With my nagging foot pain, my doctor told me to get a new pair of running shoes, even though my current pair weren’t yet spent.
So last night at 7:15, I booked it over to Fleet Feet at Piper’s Alley to get a new pair before they closed.
I got more than I bargained for — I got a lesson in how to tie my shoes.
Filed under Shoes, Tips & Tricks
I don't recommend biking without shoes.
I have been working very hard at continuing to maintain my five-day workout plan — despite my injury, my teaching responsibilities and my hectic work-mornings-one-day-work-nights-the-next-and-working-mornings-again schedule.
That means that I still get up at 5 a.m. every morning, even if I didn’t get home from work until 11 the night before — and even if I don’t have to be at work until 2 p.m. later.
It’s tough. Trying to keep my body clock on its regular schedule while I fill in some gaps until I can hire a Web producer is physically and mentally exhausting.
Take yesterday, for example.
I grabbed my gym bag, popped on my snow boots, dug out the car and headed to the gym. I swiped my card and started walking to the locker room — proud that I had once again woken up on schedule to tackle the crazy day ahead of me.
Halfway to the locker room, I stopped in my tracks. “Sh**,” I said out loud as I looked down at my feet. “I forgot my gym shoe.”
(Ha. That’s not a typo, I have to wear my fun little stress fracture boot, which I remembered for some reason, on one foot and a gym shoe on the other.)
I stood in that spot a little too long as I tried to calculate as quickly as possible (using my un-caffeinated brain) the benefits of cutting into 20 minutes of my workout time to go home to get my shoe and head back.
There were none. I decided to bike sans shoe (which the gym probably frowns upon).
My barefoot, er sockfoot, workout was not an insignificant one. I biked 45 minutes at level 15 (that’s pretty decent resistance), with varying hills and I made a goal of keeping my RPMs above 80 on the climbs and as high as possible for the flats.
It was a good ride – I went about 14 miles – and I was feel pretty good about my prospects of continuing to get in shape while injured.
Until today, that is.
Despite the fact that I again got up for a bootcamp I can’t fully participate in, I did my biking, my rowing splits, my lifting, my squats and my core work.
I was in high spirits looking toward my doctor appointment today at 1 p.m.
And when I got on the scale for my Friday weigh in, and it said I had gained a pound, my spirits crashed.
When I got to work and Geoff asked how I was doing, I am embarrassed to say I let a few tears out. I am terrified that this injury isn’t healing, isn’t going to heal well, and if it does, that it won’t do so in time. I have a lot of runs – Shamrock Shuffle (March 21; probably out), Soldier Field 10-miler (May 29), Chicago 13.1 (June 13) – planned leading up to my debut marathon in October. And if I can’t train properly for it, I shouldn’t run it either.
I’m struggling to try to keep a positive attitude.
