Yoga Pants Life

The official 18 week training plan for the Chicago Marathon started yesterday. That’s right! No more pre-training/base-training – I’m in full-on training mode right now. Part of me is terrified and wondering if I can actually pull this off, and part of me is beyond excited to dive in and work my tail off to get to the starting line on October 9th. I think my two biggest hurdles right now are confidence and consistency. If I can conquer those two things, I’ll probably get through it.

My last few weeks of base-training were non-existent, which, is why I’m a bit stressed out going into this training cycle. I had a silly little accident two and a half weeks ago – I tripped on some uneven grass walking back from lunch and landed on my foot/ankle totally wrong. It didn’t seem like a big deal at first – in fact, I was able to walk the half mile back to my office mostly pain free. However, it became more painful as the afternoon wore on, and by that night I couldn’t put any weight on it at all. I tried not to panic and planned my course of action, which, happened to be a lot of inaction.

I spent the whole weekend in bed, getting up only when necessary and icing the crap out of my ankle. I also started a steady diet of ibuprofen and kept my ankle wrapped and elevated. I spent the entire weekend binge watching Real Housewives and HGTV. It felt like overkill to be so lazy (I mean, I’m lazy AF most of the time…hello! I titled my blog ‘yoga pants life’ – if that doesn’t demonstrate my love of all things lazy, I don’t know what does – but this weekend really pushed my boundaries of lazy,) but it worked! I was able to walk normally by Sunday night, though it still hurt to put all my weight on it. I decided to play it extra-safe and saw the doctor on Monday to make sure it was a minor sprain (yep, that’s exactly what it was – all my Dr. Googling came in handy!) and get the ‘all clear’ to work out again. I was cleared to do low-impact activities (as long as I didn’t have pain) and to run again the next week.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to work out at all that week and instead focused all my energy on my impromptu road trip to take my sister back home. I hit the gym Sunday (9 days post-sprain) for some miles on the elliptical. It felt great at the time, but I was hurting the next day. I took a few more days off before getting back on the elliptical – this time it started hurting right away…but I quickly learned that I had no pain when the incline and resistance were on a low setting. It felt great to work out again, but, truth be told, I wanted to tell every stranger that passed by “you guys! I work out! I’m in shape! I swear! I can totes handle more!!!!!” (Because strangers at the gym REALLY care what I’m doing.) I was ready to run again this past Sunday, but…

I ended up with a gnarly infection in my gums (gross, and, ouch!) and wasn’t up for anything Sunday. I went to the dentist yesterday and had a lovely round of antibiotics shot into my gums and was in quite a bit of pain after. Shockingly, I ended up running after work after all that. I decided that I had missed enough and it was “day 1” of the official plan. I knew that even if I wasn’t feeling it physically, mentally, I needed to do it and set the tone for the next 18 weeks.

It was the best run I’ve had in a while (maybe it’s because it’s the only run I’ve had in a while!) and time away certainly made my heart grow fonder! I had a few twinges in my ankle and had to numb my gums before and after, but it felt so awesome to be out running again. I cut the run about 1/3 of a mile short, which, I’m okay with. I decided that it wasn’t significant enough to worry about and I was feeling dehydrated (I drastically reduced my fluid/water intake over the last few days because it was too painful to drink much.)

I’m feeling pretty much back-to-normal today (minus ibuprofen tummy and sore quads) and am more or less ready to take on day 2. If all goes as planned, I’ll hit 18 miles this week (I know, not a lot for marathon training) but I’m much more concerned with crossing the finish line in one piece and setting a PR (not hard, considering my first marathon was over 6 hours) I’m not out to qualify for Boston or anything like that (well, it would be awesome eventually, but I doubt I’ll come close right now.)

And, with that, it’s time to rock day 2. Peace, homies!