New Year, New Problems....

Well, I've been super bad at keeping up with this blog. My training honestly has been less than superb. If it's not my cramping calves, then it's something else...like this annoying cough I developed a couple weeks ago. Did you know it's really hard to run 12 miles with cramping calves and a lung hanging out? Yeah, that was two weekends ago. I also thought it was a good idea to bike 30 miles to Redondo beach the day after that. It wasn't until both lungs were hanging out that I decided it was a good time to take some time off from training so this past week, I've just been lazy and stuffing my face with food...

This morning I went out for a 3 miler. Apparently my cough is not completely gone, but it doesn't seem to have gotten worse. After a week of rest, 3 miles is pretty easy. No cramping calves...totally loose,but that might have been because of the yoga class I went to last night. I am trying yoga to cure my insomnia. We'll see if there is any effect after a few weeks....I am skeptical,but if anything, yoga seems to be a really great way to stretch out. All of my muscles are pretty tight after running so maybe it'll improve my range of motion after continuous marathon training.

One mystery I have solved this year so far was the origin of a scratch at the top of my tummy that would appear on and off last year. See pic for reference:




Apparently, my sports bra was cutting me in half. It never occurred to me that this scratch was running related. I thought I was just scratching myself in the middle of the night or something. Well, after I figured out that my sports bra was chafing me in half, I set out to search for a better non-chafey bra. Yeah...I learned that running bras are EXTREMELY expensive. Runners world suggested several bras from Lululemon athletica, which were like $40-$60 a pop and my local running store suggested the Shock Absorber bra which was retailing at $80 per bra!!! In the end I went with the $5 stick of rub on body lubricant. Yes, its kind of gross feeling, but it seems to get the job done. The angry bra injury has not recurred since. Who the hell thought running would be so complicated?! *sigh* Amazon had a 25%off sale on all running shoes. I just ordered my third and FINAL pair of running shoes. This pair will be the ones I wear during the marathon. I decided to go with the Mizuno Wave Alchemy over the Brooks Addiction shoes. The Mizuno is a lighter shoe and feels less like I am running on orthopedic cement blocks than the Brooks shoes. They also look less dorky, which is a plus. I will still use the Brooks to train for shorter distances to give myself more of a weight challenge, but will definitely use my Mizuno's for long runs for comfort.