I pick the bike.

Last night I had a cocktail hour with a friend of mine who is lamenting the end of her 3-yr relationship. There's that magic 3-yr number again. Maybe they're just not meant to last any longer than that.

Then she asked me when I knew my last relationship was over. Hmmm, I had to think for a minute and realistically, I kept remembering this one incident over and over. I remember him looking at me one day and being very annoyed. Then he said, "Is it always about the bike with you?" Yes, I pick the bike. Is that wrong?

Happy Birthday IT band.

This morning I joined the CycleU Triathlon team for a running clinic at Greenlake and learned a ton from Toby Swanson. Thanks Toby! One thing I realized is that I never had a clue what the hell I was doing when I ran races years ago. I didn't train, I just went out and ran fast a few times a week and that's likely what did me in with the IT band.

We did some pacing drills around the Greenlake track and surprise, surprise, I WAY out ran myself. I was supposed to do a 2:10 400m lap. 2:10? I used to run the 400 in high school in 1:05. I fought with myself the whole lap to slow down and clocked 1:45. Why can't I just slow down sometimes? Being aware of "goal pace" is really something I need to work on.

Today was the perfect day to have a "track day" since I consider it the 3rd anniversary of IT band hell. Hard to believe, but 3 years ago today marked the end of my running career at the Pumpkin Push 5k race at Seward Park. About a week prior I developed horrible knee pain and couldn't run, let alone walk down stairs. I took a week off, then lined up for the start of the 5k thinking it surely had to be healed. Wrong! I remember hobbling the entire course, running on one leg down the steep hill, and gimping across the finish line. After that, I made several lame attempts at running to salvage my Seattle Half that year, but alas, I finally gave in.

About a month or so ago marked my return to running and today just reinforced what I already know: I need to keep a careful eye on myself and exercise some serious discipline. I love running, but I'm already increasing mileage too quickly and I need to back down and take it easy. That said, I know Boston was a long shot for next year anyway, but I'm officially killing it. I'd much rather postpone a year to get myself injury free than risk another 3 years of IT band hell.

Now I'm thinking of turning that Surf City Boston Marathon Qualifier into a half-marathon instead. I think I can be ready for that by February. So anyway, happy birthday IT band. Now it's time to mountain bike...

Time for an update...

Since Facebook has taken over my life it seems I'm not doing nearly as many blog updates, so I guess it's about time. The last month has been seriously busy, mostly due to work. My typical work week runs about 50-60 hrs right now and probably will for the next few weeks. I love the projects I'm working on though, so it doesn't seem all that bad.

Joe kicked me into high gear at Headquarters about two weeks ago, so I'm on the big girl's lifting plan. Those first two weeks were brutal and it's a bit more tolerable now. Already I'm seeing big changes, so I'm expecting lots of new muscle in 30 days. Sweet!

I thank a friend for getting me into hot yoga, which has become my newest addiction. I absolutely think it's helping to heal my IT band, my bad knee, and various other issues. The most amazing thing is how awesome I feel after I'm done sweating my butt off for an hour in the studio. It's a great detox and resets me back to zero.

The most exciting thing to me right now is my running progression. I almost feel like I'm back to where I was three years ago, minus the speed. I'm running regularly 4x/week and just slowly building my mileage. Probably the most exciting part is that I'm running at Discovery Park again, which is awesome mostly because it's not flat. I'm finally able to run hills, especially downhill, and the IT band isn't even twitching. Just this past Saturday I logged a 4.5-mi run. Longest in years!!

On the flip-side, biking has gone completely to the wayside. The tendinitis in my knee is calming down, but the bike riles it up, so I just haven't been riding. Unfortunately, that also means my cross season is in jeopardy, but so be it. As it turns out, I've logged 580 miles this entire year, which is a far cry from the 2500 I did each of the two years before. And 150 miles of that 580 was RAMROD. Yikes.

I know myself well and I'm a very competitive person. I don't have enough discipline to not go 150% out there. Cross is fun of course, but frustrating because I'm not in shape, and I'm afraid it's a recipe for injury to try to go Zone 5 with no base right now. I even caught myself thinking about some 5K running races coming up, but I know I'd be trying to do 7-min miles in no time, and I don't need to do that right now either.

So, I think I've basically given myself a "No racing ban" for the remainder of the year. I think my time the next few months is best spent rebuilding. I have a ways to go, but I'd rather take the time to get fully healed and be back for next year. Afterall, I'm just ecstatic to be running again!!

And next year is going to be big....but more on that later.