I'm back

So it has been a long while since I have been on here. And I am glad to say that I am finally back! Since the last time I have been on here, life has been a little crazy for me.  Its going great though! I'm loving being back in Chico teaching the little ones how to swim.  And babysitting for one of the cutest babies ever! Also I do think I have one of the best jobs because I get the opportunity to play with kids the whole time I'm there.  Even when I'm not in the water, I can play with them or hold babies because my boss's kids love to have someone play with them when they are at work with her.  Now other than loving work, school is a little crazy especially this upcoming week. I love the field I decided to get my master's in but I can't exactly say I love the school part... I would so much rather just be able to go out there and get a job without being back in school (which I am considering doing at this point since it's only my first semester in grad school).

But on to the running now...  Well I've been going to see my chiropractor and he has helped tremendously in making my hip heal faster than it would have otherwise with the exercises he has given me to do and when he works on it during my appointments.  Plus I started back up on doing insanity a few days a week and I do believe that doing those workouts help my hips get stronger and more flexible (from the stretching warm-up and warm-down). So I was able to start back up on the running goal on Tuesday the 26th of September. A few days after exactly a month from when I had to stop. I haven't decided yet but I may either just have this day as a restarting point or just add on a month to my original start day...we will see. I'll probably make the decision in the next week or so.

I hope everyone is excited for the fall season here! I know I am. Pumpkin is one of my favorite things to bake with and the season is finally here for it :) Have a great rest of your first Sunday in October and I'll be back in a few days!

Tiffany

Break :(

So I have to take a couple weeks off from running. I know it ruins my streak but if I decided not to take it off, I most likely would've ended up not being able to run at all for a long time like the last time I got injured. So I decided before it got extremely bad that I should just take a little break now. I will still be keeping track of my mileage once I can run again and will start up running every day again but for the time being, we're going on a little break. My hip was starting to get uncomfortably painful and I didn't want it to get like last time. I have decided that the amount of time I take off now I will add onto the end of the year so when May 22, 2012 comes around I will now not be done then but will have at least 2 weeks added onto that. Luckily it worked out simi nice where my first day off was August 22 so I ran for exactly 3 months so then once I start up again it will be easy to figure it out.

Cutting back

So I've decided I'm going to cut back a little bit on the mileage these next couple weeks in order to get my hip to heal and get somewhat back to normal. I'm so disappointed because I was feeling so great and starting to really get back into good running shape but oh well that's life I guess :(
Today wasn't a bad day and the worst part is, is that once I do get going on my run my hip feels almost normal but then its when I'm doing other things that it will really bother me. For instance, it hurts more to walk and climbing out of the pool when I'm teaching swim lessons to show the kids how to do something doesn't feel very good either. But as long as I am able to keep up the daily runs I am fine with it. And I figure it might be good for me to take a few weeks easy on the running and instead do other cross training activities to keep things nice and mixed up.  During my run today I ran a couple miles to the gym from my house then I did my workout there and finished the run with a mile home and walked the rest of the way. I'm also hoping to add in a few different types of workouts this semester so we'll see how all that goes.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll keep you posted on my hip issues.

Tiffany

Bidwell Run

Hey all,

So these last couple weeks haven't been the best for my running. I've had to resort to pool runs at least three days a week because my hip started hurting again.  But this time instead of it being my left hip, it has switched over to my right one. :(  I think it was due to my 5.5 mile run 2 weeks ago and then driving 3 hours right after then running 12 the following day.  I believe it was more due to the sitting than the 12 though since sitting is the reason for a lot of the hips problems in people today.  But I've still been keeping up on the daily runs and getting in relatively the same amount of mileage but just doing it in the water instead of on land.  Yesterday I did 5 through the park early in the morning with my friend.  I forgot how great it feels to get up and do a morning run at 5:30 during the summer.  The temperature was perfect and everything is just so peaceful at that time of the morning.

Last Thursday I tried Bikram Yoga for the very first time.  I really enjoyed it but I don't know if I could commit myself to going and sitting in a really hot room multiple times a week for 90 minutes at a time.  You do feel great after but the thought of going to sit in a 100 degree, or whatever temperature it is, room when its 95 degrees outside is probably one the most unappealing things to do! Maybe if it were winter I would be a little more willing to get up and go sit in a ridiculously hot room.  But I am going to start doing yoga and pilates classes in order to help loosen and strengthen my hips so they will hopefully no longer bother me for my running.

I hope every one is having a fantastic week and getting in their last few days of summer vacation unless they have already gone back to school (or never had a summer vacation).

Tiffany

Chico

Lately things have been a little busy for me! Last week I was busy working all week along with getting my runs in and working out at the gym or going to swim practice.  I'm slowly getting my mileage back up there again and it is feeling great.  I kept it at 35 again last week and will be around there this week too just to get my legs used to that distance for a little while before I increase it again.  Last Friday night I went out planning on doing 10, I decided to do it long Friday this week instead of Saturday since I didn't want to do a long one Saturday night after my long day at work on Saturday.  But as I was going I was feeling pretty good and ended up increasing the distance to a 12 miler instead of a 10. My legs haven't been hurting me at all and I hardly feel my hip most of the time.  A few days ago my hip was feeling a little tight and was hurting after I completed my run but it never bothers me as I'm running which is fine with me!
This week has been another nice week, our weather has been perfect and I've pretty much been able to run at any time of the day rather than having to get up at the crack of dawn or go late at night.  Yesterday when I got up to Chico I went over to Bidwell Park to get my run in, I felt awesome! I ended up getting an extra mile in because I just didn't want to stop so I did 6 instead of 5 last night. I missed running in Chico and I forgot how much I love running through the park. I don't know what it is about being up here but it just makes me want to keep going and go faster than I normally do when I'm at home.  I can't wait until next week when the training programs start that I'm helping out with this year. Its going to be fun to see everyone again and see new faces that will be joining for the first time to complete their very first marathon. After I get off work today I will be going for my run before I have to go back home for the night to get my car mirror fixed. I'll be getting in another 5 today and either a 10 or 12 miler on Saturday.  I will try to be a lot better this week about posting every other day rather than only posting every other week.  I hope everyone's summer is still going great and good luck to all the kids going back to school this coming week!

Tiffany

Vacation

I haven't been on here in a really long time and I'm sorry about that! This whole last week I have been on vacation up at Lake Almanor and the week before that I was pretty busy so I just didn't have much time to sit down and write on here.  But I have been keeping up my daily runs and been slowly increasing my mileage.  This whole last week was a little hard on my legs because it was so hilly up by the lake where our cabin was.  I loved being able to run in a new location but after the first two days running up there my legs were getting pretty sore so I had to do one day of running in the water.  Throughout the week I ran 5 miles everyday and no matter where I ran there was some sort of hill whether it was rolling or just a gradually uphill slope.  Yesterday I did a 10 miler and ran from our cabin into the town of Chester. Starting out from our cabin I knew I would be doing a couple miles of hills since that is the route I had been doing throughout the week but I didn't think about the rest of it before getting to the big downhill part of the run so about the first 5 miles that I ran was going up hill, every now and then there was a little flat road or spurts of downhill in there but overall more uphill than anything else. But then after than it was relatively flat or gradual downhill the rest of the way making the 2nd half of the run a lot better than the first half.  I will be really happy to be back to flat roads this coming week and only doing a hill workout maybe once a week instead of every day! My mileage is starting to get up there and the last few weeks I have been averaging about 35 miles so I'm slowly getting back up to the good number of 50 per week :)

Tiffany

Long day

Saturday's are very long days for me.  This week I had to be at work by 5am and I like to do some form of exercise before I have to be at work because it makes the rest of the day a whole lot better.  So last night I set my alarm for 3:15 and I was planning on running when I got up in the morning.  But the run this morning did not end up happening (but insanity did) because I had the craziest dream last night and was a little freaked out to run outside.  And since some people are still out partying or doing whatever crazy things at 3 in the morning, I didn't really feel too comfortable going out by myself so I figured staying in and doing insanity was a much better idea! Then later when I got home from work I took my 2 and a half hour nap that has become part of my Saturday routine this summer.  I went running around 9 and surprisingly my legs were feeling pretty decent. I was planning on doing 6 but as I was running I figured I might as well run an hour and since I was so close to 8 miles at an hour, I decided to run 4 more minutes to get in the whole 8 miles.  The weather was finally decent to run in tonight too, there was a little breeze and instead of the temperature being in the 90s, I'm guessing it was in the low 80s or so maybe a little cooler.  And tonight I decided to take a risk and run out in the country while it was dark, not something I normally do since there isn't a whole lot of people to see if I were to get taken.  I've decided I'm not too much of a fan of it because even with my night vest on cars really don't pay much attention to you and its just a little bit dangerous so I'll probably sit to running throughout town when I go out in the dark from now on.  I hope everyone is having a great weekend and I'm heading to Santa Cruz for the day tomorrow.  Enjoy your Sunday!!

Tiffany