A new 5K PR and Boca Graduates!

What a fun weekend! and it's only Saturday morning. On Wednesday, Boca took his Beginner Obedience Test. We (Boca and I) were both quite nervous about the sit/stay and down/stay. We have practiced and practiced and practiced. But, if you know anything about me, I don't just sit/stay very well myself, and well down/stay I reserve for sleeping. My dog has taken after my philosophy. But we practiced and practiced and practiced, and well Boca decided that test day would be a good time to do his first 3 minute down/stay at school. Boca wound up receiving the highest score for his class, therefore earning "Top Dog" honors. What does that mean? Well it meant we had to compete against all of the other top dogs from the other beginner obedience classes at graduation Friday night. Not having any idea, how the whole dog graduation thing worked, I did not do well at getting Boca ready for his competition. However, if there was an award for 'playing the crowd' I think Boca would have won that hands down. He smiled and when he had to do his sits he always turned so he was facing the audience. It was rather cute. I was a little embarrassed that I hadn't prepared Boca better, but I think he had a great time and it was so awesome to even be in the position to compete again. Turns out he did get some loot for winning the title of "Top Dog" from his class. He was stoked about that...as you can see in the picture below.

Once the "Top Dog' competition was done, the dogs go to wear motor boards (much to their dismay) and get recognized one at a time. The whole dog graduation was quite cute and was a great opportunity for Boca to be around many other dogs and people.

On to running.....

I decided to enter the St. Pat's 5K run, since the doc wants me to give it one more week before I attempt more than 3-4 miles. I decided it would be a good opportunity to see if I could get a new PR for the 5K. This morning's weather, although a little chilly, was almost a perfect temp for a run, start a little cool and then not get too hot as you went along. The best part of today's run was at first having a group of Marines running and chanting behind me...they eventually caught up with me (I ran with them til the turnaround)...then of course going downhill on the way back they smoked me. It was so great to just listen and try to process what they were chanting...what a great distraction. I wound up finishing the 5K with a clock time of 37:04, and a Garmin time of 36:49. I am so pumped!! I can still remember when I just hoped to do a sub-40 and someday I may do a sub-36. My average pace/mile today was 11:47. This is awesome....first time I have ran 3 consecutive since my hip injury...and to run a sub-12 average...wow!!! Thanks Marines!!! I really needed the good run today to help boost back up my running confidence. I am so looking forward to the 6-hour snake run next week. Will be my first event on trails rather than road....am hoping just to have fun!!

Back in the Saddle (or Running shoes as the case may be)

After a two week hiatus from running thanks to a pesky hip injury, I have been able to get back into running the routes. Thursday I was given the okay from the doc to start some interval running. So I did the 3 miles Thursday running a 1/2 mile then walking 1/2 mile. I made it through the whole 3 miles, as did Boca, and didn't have any excess pain. My muscles were letting me know that they hadn't done that in a while. I woke up Friday morning a little worried that I would have some residual soreness or pain from Thursday's adventure, but nothing. Worked out with the trainer on Friday and it was a high cardio day (rowing and running), and again no incidence. Saturday was "long run" day, but fortunately it was a cut back week, so my group was scheduled to do 4 miles. I did interval running again, this time running a mile then walking 1/2 mile...again Boca and I made it through the 4 miles, running 3 and walking 1, without much incidence. I have been applying the heat/ice every night and it seems to be working. Went to the doc again today. He says I am about 95%. Went out with Bobby's Bunch tonight and ran 2.00 straight then walked 1/4 mile through the grass part and finished with .75 run. I think I am getting back in the groove..Yeah!! It's amazing how quick we lose everything we work so hard to build up..I did it once I can do it again.

The 20% Physical & Cross Training

As you can see the bunny slipper and I have been getting in some cross training on the row machine. This has been the only cardio-type workout I have been 'cleared' for by my chiropractor while my hip heals. I really wish that I had a better explanation of what happened to my hip. I have been through 4 adjustments, and from the pain I still have just throughout the day I can tell that my hip is still not right. It is so frustrating. The positive news is that the doc says I should be okay to get in my 1/2 marathon in Lawrence, KS on April 19th. Let's just keep praying that it does happen, that run has been like my nemisis..every year I plan on doing it and every year something seems to prevent me from doing it. I do have to say that it has been somewhat fun rowing on a daily basis. I have been doing an average of 4 miles a day at about at 2:20/500 meter average.

I have still been heading out and meeting up with the Runners World group to keep up my motivation and to continue to be inspired by others, so when I am cleared to running, I will still be in my routine. It has been so nice of Susan to walk with me. I have been taking Boca out with me for the walking adventures. He is just loving it. I need to keep taking him out even when I get back to running. I think he could easily do 2-4 miles with me.

My work as a doctoral candidate has gone very well over the last week too! I have all of the DVDs created that I need to begin my study. One DVD is to train students that may help me out, and the second DVD will be used to teach my participants. Now I just need to get all my paperwork approved from both KU and TU and I'm ready to get the party started.

My work as a teacher at TU was a little out of whack this week. I made a big rookie mistake...I had projects due for all 3 of the classes I teach during the same week. So I gave the bunny slipper some lessons on grading...he caught on quite quickly as you can see by the picture below.

Overall, I guess things are okay. I hope that my body heals, but I am thankful that I have been able to avoid catching any of the bugs going around and have been relatively healthy.

Injuries STINK!!!

Well I was lucky enough to get the bunny slippers, I mean slipper on Thursday evening. It has been a rough week. My last post describes the pain I had in my hip. I went to my chiropractor twice last week. Turns out that my hip pain was stemming from the fact that my pelvic boned had rocked out of place (shifted forward). So he did 2 adjustments. On Friday, I felt wonderful and worked out with my trainer. As I was doing my 2nd round of squats, I felt my hip get a little tight, but not sore. So I did as the doctor ordered and did NO running on the weekend. It was very hard not to run. My mind and body are so used to the running routing that without it I feel kinda blah. It's amazing how much running helps the mind. I was so pumped for today to head out with Bobby's Bunch for a short loop around Zink lake. Well I think the 11th street bridge has something against me, as I stepped across it tonight at around the 1.15 mile, one step on my right foot, and I felt my hip just pop out of place. UGHH!!! Here we go again. I am back to the chiropractor tomorrow for another adjustment. I guess the good news is that the hip pain is nearly as painful as it was the first time, so that's improvement right? We'll see if I am back to walking restriction. The bunny slipper has had quite an adventurous time even if there was very little running involved. Pictures to come...

What a mess of a run!

Let me start this entry by saying that I think the whole idea of the poker run is great and was loads of fun (or at least would have been, had I had any type of good cards at all!). The day started alright. I meet up with some other beginner 1/2 marathoners at 7:30 to get our 2 miles in before the beginning of the poker run. I started the day with an attitude of trying to keep a pace between 12:15 and 12:30 so I could get all 7 miles in without much hardship. The first two miles went smooth as we did an out and back to the pedestrian bridge. Then it was time for the poker run, masses of people headed out to Riverside, I laid back a bit as I have a lot of anxiety of being in large crowds. The 3 mile of my run today seemed to be going alright. Then I hit around the 3 1/2 mile marker and wound up with excruciating pain in my right hip. At first I thought maybe it was just a hip cramp, but when I hit mile 4 I knew it was something more serious. The pain got so bad that I just wanted to quit and cry. I decided that I had to be okay with walking and getting my miles in. At the turn around, Deon handed me yet another unhelpful card to my poker hand, but had nothing but words of encouragement. So instead of heading up and over the 21st bridge and cutting the run short I decided that 7 miles would be what my Garmin indicated at the end of the day. I had several very nice and thoughtful runners check on me on the way back, by mile 5.5 even walking was becoming a struggle, but I forged ahead. I did make it back to Veteran's park, with all 7 cards, which had to be one of the worst hands out there (K, 9, 7, 5,4,3,2). I am now letting good ol' Advil help alleviate the inflammation and laying low for the rest of the day, hoping that whatever it is that is hurt, heals. I thank everyone who checked up on and with me, I love the thoughtfulness and caring of the Runners World group.

My dog gets his first award

Boca is quite proud of his trophy for heeling and coming to an automatic sit the quickest. I have to share the ironic part of the whole class and getting the trophy, is I seem to have the dog that would be labeled the "class clown" granted he gets a lot of cute points, but following structure is not his strong suite. So, why include this on a blog about running and fitness. Well I figure if my class clown dog can pull out a trophy, then I can surely complete my scheduled 13.1 miles in April.

My past week of running has been pretty good. Saturday included a run of 6 miles through the streets of south tulsa. I enjoyed the run and the route. I felt that I kept up a decent pace and if I had to I felt like I could have done another mile if needed. The Monday was a very nice evening, a little windy here and there, but people were busting out the shorts because the weather has turned so warm and spring like. I was chugging along at a 12 min/mile for the first mile then Michael and Ken caught up with me. Dana was a little ahead of me so Ken forged ahead to catch up with Dana and run with her and Michael and I continued on with good conversation on how the KU Jayhawks killed OSU in basketball, and of course that also included picking up the pace a little. The 4 of us decided to do the full 4.4 mile Zink lake loop, it was such a nice evening. I finished the 4.27 miles in 51:10 which was about a 12 min/mile pace overall. On Tuesday the weather was a little sketchy, but since I didn't have to teach that night, I headed out to meet up with the Runners World crew. I opted for 3.15 miles because of the wind and weather conditions, again was a decent run for myself, with an average of 12 min/mile average. This morning, I had a great arm workout with trainer Andrew. It was brutal, but better than squats on a Bosu ball. Then Boca and I headed to Dog school which as you can see yielded great results as well.

I hope everyone has had a great week!

Lawrence KS 1/2 Marathon is ON!!!

YIPPEEE!! This run has been the monkey on my back. It used to be called the Lawrence Half Marathon, but the run got canceled due to lack of sponsorship, but it appears the whole run has changed hands in terms of organization. They will be having a 1/2 marathon on April 19th (one week before OKC). Next year they will be adding a full marathon as well..OH BOY!!! Sign me up. Anyone else want to trek to Lawrence?

www.kansasmarathon.com

This just goes to show that listening to streaming radio while at work is a good thing :). OH Boy!!!