OUCH

Long distance running can be very painful. However, it's not like any kind of pain I have felt before. It's not like getting a floor burn diving for a volleyball, or getting elbowed in the face while posting up in basketball, or feeling like your hamstrings are going to rip off after sprinting 400m in track, or feeling like you're going to pass out/die/see Jesus after doing a 2k on the erg. No no, it's nothing like that. Today I ran 17 miles, my farthest run yet. During my run, I realized that doing anything over 10 miles feels like this:

-all of the cartilage in your hips have been ripped out

-your IT bands have snapped off

-someone is banging your knee caps with a hammer

-a hole is being drilled into your femur

-your hip flexors have turned into metal and no longer let you raise your foot passed your ankle

Yet the weirdest part is that not only does the pain never go away, but it doesn't really get worse. And walking does not make it feel better, so you might as well keep running and hope that you make it home before you collapse.

Happy running!

~A

Finding My Feet Again

Oh hey blog. Long time no post!

I apologize for my lack of contributing. So far running this summer has been...well, let me tell you. Just before the half marathon in May, my hips would get really sore when I ran. I didn't think much of it, I figure lots of people get sore when they run. It's normal. But then afterwards I started getting up to 35 mile weeks and the soreness turned to pain. So I went to see the good ol' doc and she said I strained my gluteus medius muscle (no, not my gluteus MAXimus aka booty). It's a deep muscle in the hip region. She prescribed me new shoes, taking a few days off then running 3 miles every other day and then back into my training plan, and physical therapy. Oh, I also changed my training plans-my dad was writing me one. He ran plenty of marathons in his day, now he race-walks halfsies. Anywho, as the pain grew worse I started to think that the plan he was giving me was a little bit much. He used to RACE marathons. I'm just trying to finish. So I asked Katie if I could see a copy of the plan she was using. The longest mileage my dad said I would get up to would be 50-70 mile weeks (closer to the marathon). In Katie's plan, the longest mileage week was 43. That's what my dad had me doing on average in July. So the doc also said to switch to Katie's plan.

Now this part is my fault. I got new shoes, ran 3 miles ever other OTHER day, and procrastinated calling the physical therapy office until 2 weeks ago. I know this isn't an excuse, but my boyfriend left for Australia a week and a half ago, so leading up to that we went camping and I was busy planning a surprise going away party for him. Running got put on the back burner until the day after he left. So now I'm back into full swing, but it's slow. Last week Monday I had to do 14 miles and I did it in 4 different runs: 6 and 2 in the morning and then 4 and 2 at night. It was more of a run/walk, but I got the mileage in which was my goal. Then yesterday I did 15 miles in 3 runs: 7 and 3 in the morning (which sucked with both slowness and soreness) and then 5 at night. That 5 was great! I was cruisin along at around 9.5 min miles and it felt good! I was so relieved that I still had a good run left in me. And it got especially better when my man Enrique came on my iPod singing "I Like It". The past couple days I had been running iPod-commando, and some days it was nice. But other days, I could only handle my thoughts for so long...plus, it's so much nicer when I have Enrique's sweet sweet voice serenading me :) Now that I'm back on schedule, I signed up for the Madison Mini Marathon on August 21. My goal is to run the whole thing, or at least beat my time from the May half marathon.

And for those of our 3 loyal followers, I am running the Chicago Marathon for a charity called Girls In The Game which is an organization that gives girls the opportunity to learn different sports and how to stay and eat healthy. I'm all for that, especially the eating part :) So if any of you would like to make a donation, you can do so here: http://www.active.com/donate/charityraceteam/alyssageorge It would be greatly appreciated!

Until next time (hopefully before October),

~A

My juggling act of a life...

SORRY!
I know I have not updated in too long...again. I really do not mean to do this, let me try and explain myself.

See, I work at a sports camp over the summer. It is the best 5 weeks of my entire year. I get paid to hang out with kids, play games outside all day, coach boys lacrosse, and work with some of the coolest people in the world. And for those of you who are looking skeptically at me, YES, I am good with kids. My snarky/sassy/sarcastic demeanor is not brought along with me to sports camp, and instead I spend my weeks brushing hair, tying shoes, leading obnoxious cheers/dances, cutting up chicken, discussing the relative merit of the Jo-Bros, Justin Beiber, and silly bands, and calling 7-10 year old girls "sweetie". Its almost like a totally different Katie.

Anyway, my days are pretty much full. I do get 2 hours off every morning while the girls are at their Major sport of the day, but depending on the day I either spend that time:
A) Running/showering
B) Learning the counselor dance for the camp dance
C) Dealing with "injured/sick" (aka homesick) kids
D) Dealing with kids who are really injured or sick
E) Napping (especially on days when a camper wakes me up 7 times the night before...)
F) Planning my daily "PADDLE" talk with the girls about being a good person
G) Filling out their evaluations/journals
D) Talking to head counselors about problems

The rest of my 18 hour workday, you can find me playing such games as Cricket, Cageball, Powerball, Passgoal, OmniBall, basketball, soccer, Captains Coming, PiloBall, and a variety of other made up sports. Or I may be coaching lacrosse for 3 hours, or supervising free time, or telling girls to "Push in your chairs and say please and thank you!" at meals. But seriously, its the best job ever. However, it leaves little time or energy for coming up with witty/entertaining blog posts. I know that you, the three adoring fans, deserve more, and I pledge to do better.

Oh, you want to know about training? Its going well. Dubuque is really hilly, but I have found routes that are fairly flat. Its summer, so its hot. I run a tad bit slower sometimes. Sometimes I am really tired and I run less than I should, but I always make it up at a later date. I ran 11 miles last weekend with Lauren and Dan, and that went well. Yep. This whole running every day thing gets a little boring, but I make up games to entertain myself, like "name that tune" when I shuffle my Ipod. I need to get one of those hydration belt thingies so I stop stealing Dan's gatoraid.

See, why would you want to read about boring training when I can tell you all about how I convinced my campers that I am a professional Cricket player in England!? Thats much more exciting.

Until next time,
Katie

1/2 Marathon...3 weeks later...

Oh...hey.

I was at a family graduation party yesterday and was reminded gently (and sometimes not so gently) that I had not updated the blog since our victorious and glorious 1/2 marathon on May 30. I guess I have had enough time to decompress by now. Hopefully. So lets try this:

The night before, my family and I headed out to Madison to hit up the marathon expo, which was pretty uneventful. We checked into the hotel, met up with Alyssa and her mom, and checked out the local Olive Garden for some cheap and abundant carbs. My brother D.J. told the hostess that Alyssa and I were twins (we do look alike) and that it was our birthday, so we even got free cake. Thanks D.J.! We headed back to the hotel and sat in the hot tub for a while, and tried to go to bed early. I could not fall asleep, I probably got about 2 hours that night. I was up at 4 to eat a full breakfast and tried to get back to sleep, but that was a fail, so I just laid in bed until 5:30. We left the hotel with Alyssa's mom at 5:45 and had no problem getting downtown and to the start in time. We warmed up and stretched like good little runners, hit the port-a-potties, and were ready to go! Then we watched the crazy marathon runners start. And then it was time for us to start!

The first 5 miles were easy. (Too bad there are 8 after that right?) Alyssa had to pee right away so we hit the first bathroom we could find, which caused us to lose our pace group, but whatever. They were crazy anyway. Those first miles were through campus, and it was hilly. We had some choice words for the people who plan the route on our way up the hill on Observatory, but we were on campus so we knew where we were and that helped a lot. We saw our families around mile 5.5, and that was great! I really don't remember the next few miles, but I know that at mile 7 I had to stop and pee, and that's when my body though we were done for the day. Sitting down was a terrible life decision. It took a lot of convincing to get my legs to believe that we still had 6 miles to go, but somehow they got the message and we kept chugging. There really weren't many people on that back half of the course, and it was getting HOT, and we were just not feeling it. When we hit mile 8, I got excited, because we only had 5 miles left, and that's less than an hour, and 5 miles is nothing, right? Ha.

We ran along the lake for a while, which was nice and cool, and then we looped around Menona Bay, which is where I really started to hurt. We saw 2 people being taken off of the course on stretchers, probably because of dehydration (it was 88 degrees and HUMID when we finished). Someone was blasting "Telephone" by Lady Gaga, and that was nice. People had their hoses out and were spraying us down, and that was even nicer. But I was not feeling it. I was trying to keep smiling, keep chatting, doing whatever it took to keep moving forward, at a decent pace. Because we only had 3 miles left dammit. And 3 miles is NOTHING. I should be able to FLY for 3 friggin miles. Finally, FINALLY we hit the one mile left mark, and I almost got excited, but for some cruel and evil and demonic reason, the asswipe route planners decided that the last mile should be UPHILL. People were just walking (or limping, or crying) everywhere, it was like a giant game of frogger, and I honestly thought I was going to puke up about a gallon of yellow gatoraid. But to our credit, we ran up that entire damn hill. And then just where I thought the finish line was...there was more hill. So we kept running. We heard our parents cheering for us, so we ran faster (showing off our studly skills....). And then....we ran up a little more hill. But then we were done! And I did not throw up, and we got our medals, and more water, and then we hobbled about looking for our families. Alyssa's watch said we ran it in 2:15.08 (not including potty breaks), and I was really pleased with that time. Our goal was 2:10, but seeing as it was hot as balls, and hilly, and our first 1/2, I can not complain.

We found our families, and drank more, and began to slowly move back to the cars. Stretching and walking back to the car took a while, but I stayed on my feet. We got back to the hotel, and I took a ridiculously long shower, and then was anti social and cranky the rest of the day, and ate 3 pieces of deep dish pizza for dinner. Because I earned it dammit.

I was really proud of us after the race, but I know we still have a lot of work to do before the marathon in October. I started Hal's 18 Week program this week, and I decided to do Intermediate I, because the novice ones looked like a huge step down in mileage for me, and I did not want to slide backwards. I know I have never run a marathon before, but I think I can handle it. We'll see how it goes. I leave for my counselor job at Loras All Sports Camp on Tuesday, so balancing work and training and dealing with random crises that arise will be an interesting and new challenge, but I'm up for it!

These last few weeks I have been getting back into my full training schedule, I was really sore after the 1/2. A few weekends ago I ran the girls on the run 5k downtown which was a blast! I had so much fun running with a great group of young women and their inspiring role models who did not care about time or splits or any of the other crap most "serious" runners care about. Despite the rain, everyone had a great time. And the medals are sweet. Shout out to my cousin Lauren who coached a great group of girls all spring! All I heard about for 3.2 miles was how cool "Mrs. Kaminsky" is, and how funny she is, and how awesome she is, and blah blah blah blah (just kidding Lauren, but seriously, they were quite enamored of you...).

Thanks to everyone who continues to support us during our training. Having you there for us (and knowing full well you will judge me if I just give up at this point), really helps! Keep the advice coming you crazy running people (I seem to be related to a lot of those types)....

Until next time!
Katie

CARBS!

Its finally here. Taper week. How long have I looked forward to this week you ask? Way too long. It seems that since day one of this ordeal, I have wanted to be able to carbo load and not do much else for an entire week, and let me tell you, it feels damn good. Despite my inherent laziness, and the joys of not having to run 8 miles a day, I do feel a bit "clumpy". For those of you who aren't Valenti children, "clumps" is the term my Mom uses when one of us has too much energy, for instance:

"D.J.! Do you have clumps? Go spike that volleyball outside!"
or
"Jack, stop biting Meg and go work out the clumps."
or
"Katie, stop lurking. Gosh you are clumpy. Go for a run."

My lovely roommate can tell you how I get when I get the clumps, but its somewhere between me after an exciting lacrosse game and me on mountain dew, with some extra crazy eyes thrown in.

And that about describes me this week. That and I get to eat all of the carbs I want and no one can stop me. (Not that any sane person would EVER get between me and my food, but you know what I mean).

I know at this point I should have a "race plan", and I should be worried, and I should know the route by heart and have my fanny pack ready and my shoes clean and my outfit laid out. I don't. I know I'm a bad runner, but I'm trying not to take this too seriously. And by trying not to take it seriously I mean I am being my lazy self and not really caring too much. My race plan is this: run until I finish, don't start too fast, walk through aid stations. My outfit....we can let Meg decide that one (she has always been the fashionable one). I refuse to wear a fanny pack. I will not get lost on the course because there are thousands of people and signs and arrows. Even I can figure that one out. And its really not in my nature to worry. Not about stuff like this at least. This is supposed to be fun (at some point at least, maybe the first mile or so...).

If you find me on a street corner in Madison at some point on Sunday, you can point and laugh and say I told you so! You should have prepared more you ignorant first timer! But then at least help me get back to the car please.

Off to eat another baguette! (Have I mentioned that I love carbs?)
KV

Did You Know...

More interesting things I've seen while running:

1. A squirrel pooping. It kind of looked like it was hunched over eating an acorn, but there was no acorn...

2. A woman picking her nose while driving. I guess texting isn't the only dangerous thing to do while behind the wheel...

Interesting things I've learned:

1. Sneaking in finger scoops of cookie dough before running is a BAD idea.

2. Vaseline does NOT help lube up your legs like Katie's "Body Glide." If anything, it makes them stickier and chafe more.

4 DAYS!!

~A

The final countdown...

Ya I suck at updating this, I know. Sue me. I'm at home now, and not wasting time on my computer NEARLY as much as I do when I'm at school. So I just keep forgetting to do this.

Anyway, running in the village has been good. Flat, full of traffic, hot, but good. It is hard to find long routes around here, because I don't have a really large area where it is safe to run. So basically I run around the perimeter of town, or zig zag back and forth across it. I think that as summer wears on, I will have to go downtown and run along the lake to get my longer runs in, because I can only run back and forth down Lake street so many times.

7 days until the half marathon. Seriously, when we started this whole training thing May 30 seemed like it was so far in the future, but time flies when you're getting disgusting blisters! Lets hope I'm ready. Last week was by far the most miles I have put in:
Sunday: 10
Monday: rest
Tuesday: 6
Wednesday: 8
Thursday: 6
Friday: rest
Saturday: 6
So this week I get to taper! And eat a lot. And ice various parts of my body. And maybe try that whole stretching thing again, I kind of fell off the wagon on that one. My two goals were to run a marathon and touch my toes, and right now the marathon seems a whole lot easier.

As for next weekend, we finally have plans for getting to/staying in Madison. My family is going to head up Saturday afternoon, meet up with Alyssa and her mom, check out the Expo and pick up our stuff, eat a lot, and then eat more, and then sleep because runners are crazy people and like to start physical activity WAY too early in the morning. If anyone is going to be in Madison running or cheering or just because you live there, hit us up! We would love to see you (and give you our water bottles to hold along the course...).

Until next time (which won't be another month, promise :))
kv