26.2 and 7.5 Weeks to Go

First and foremost… hearts and prayers going out to Texas and Houston.

Ironman Foundation has asked that we share the relief efforts and what it is doing to help the community where many of its races are held.

In a historic time of need, join us in supporting the Harvey relief efforts in three different ways. DONATE and The IRONMAN Foundation will match all donations made by September 30, 2017, up to $10,000. BUY a custom Humanitarian Harvey Relief Effort t-shirt and 100% of the proceeds will go towards the fund. VOLUNTEER for local service projects, providing hands-on rebuilding assistance. To learn more, please visitwww.ironmanfoundation.org/harvey.  

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I realized I hadn’t posted a marathon training update in quite some time. Okay, so I hadn’t forgotten. I had purposefully not posted anything since we went to the beach on the family vacay.

Because in only the way, the Swim Bike Klutz can do things… I was worried that I had hurt myself on the trip… And how, pray tell, did I do that?

[drum roll please]

Walking in flip-flops in the sand.

So for the last five weeks, I have been dealing with the weirdest, most bizarro foot issue in the world.  At this point, we have ruled out a stress fracture, and it appears to be a jammed joint plus some tendinitis.

The best part about said foot injury, however? It only hurts when I walk barefoot or wear flip-flops.

It doesn’t hurt to run or cycle—but I can tell ya, it really messes with your head when you wake up in the AM and have searing pain in your foot when you walk. However, once I’m in running shoes, I am fine.

So after taking about 2 weeks “off” from running to give it a chance to get better, it was great. Then I wore some flip-flops and BAM, it was a mess again.

So summary? It’s crazy pants.

That being said, I am back running like someone who is training for a marathon and working through it.

So what’s new?

Well, I ran 17 miles today.

I have another 10-15 miler on tap for Friday, which makes my eyes go BOOOOOING out of my head… but I am doing well with the marathon training.

Aside from the Flip-Flop injury. [Insert eye roll at myself.]

What miracles have we here? 

Well, last week’s run was for the birds. I could barely do 11 miles—my whole body was hurting, even though I was recovered and hydrated and fueled.

I was just gassing out at 10 miles each time…

I was starting to wonder what in the hell was wrong with me.

I had a great talk with (the) Jeff Galloway on Saturday about my run/walk intervals and we changed them up a bit.

He suggested moving from my current 3 minute run and :30 walk to a drastic :30/:30 !  That’s a thirty-second run, and thirty-second walk… lather, rinse, and repeat.  Lawdy! For 17 miles??

Yep.

Okay, I didn’t want to do that. Not sure why.

But one thing about me… I am extremely coachable and I tend to believe and do what people who are smarter than I am say to do.

And Mr. Jeff Galloway and running falls under that category of people who are smarter than me.

So off I went this morning.

A little over 3 hours of :30/:30… and 17 miles later, I felt great.

I paced right where I needed to pace and could have done another hour.

(I think everyone in the world could be a runner if they tried run/walk. I heart Jeff.)

Moral of the story: be consistent, work hard and change something (even drastically) when it’s not working. But most importantly, recognize when that something needing change is Y-O-U.

And try something new! Like run / walk.

If your run is sucking and suffering right now, I challenge you to give :30/:30 an experimental try.

Hey, if it’s good enough for Olympian Mr. Galloway… it’s good enough for us, yes?  And what’s the worst thing that could happen? You don’t like it and don’t do it again, that’s what.

Fundraiser Update

This past weekend was the Team Logan fundraiser at the house.  Logan and I met for the first time, and I swear, I was instantly bonded with him.  Afterall, his eyes lit up when he saw my lizard. 🙂

Logan is a super sweet 17 year-old guy with some challenges that will make Marine Corps Marathon fun and interesting—like his love of emoji bouncy balls—I need creative ideas for how to carry 20-30 giant emoji balls on the run course. 🙂

But I can tell you that I am so excited to share the adventure with him. He has the most amazing spirit, and watching his eyes light up when he saw Matthew the Lizard, and the emoji balls made my soul just beam.

Thanks to the Kyle Pease Foundation for not only connecting me with Logan, but making this weekend possible to share with Logan and his wonderful momma, Dana.

It was such a great time at the fundraiser. We had a house FULL of kids (not pictured—they were in the dining room getting face paint on, water balloon fights, or miscellaneous messes all over :)).

We raised about $1500 for the day towards the goal.  A special thanks to everyone who came out and especially Jeff Galloway, Dani Grabol, Kyle Pease and Scott Rigsby for coming by.  (Oh! And you can listen to all the podcasts with Jeff, Dani, Kyle and Scott at The Same 24 Hours!) … thanks for silent auction donations from SGI Beach Condo, Zoe’s Kitchen, Tailwind Nutrition, Klean Athlete, and so many more.

Totally awesome!

We are getting so close to GOOOOOOAL!  If you’d like to make a contribution to Team Logan, please go here.

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