April is a sllooowwww month

Slow month for me - some strange lethargy overcame my brain and it actually hurts to think. I believe that is due to high pollen count this month. But there have been some interesting revelations however:

- I am capable of running 8-10 miles at a time and my knee caps don't burst and shatter to pieces as expected
- Big dogs suck: after being scared by a big undisciplined Rottweiler, Maya keeps having nightmares about wolves in her room
- As mentioned elsewhere previously, my graduate studies have begun to interfere with my wine-drinking time and I don't like it
- Judging by the intensity of recent tantrums, terrible threes promise to be far more terrible than terrible twos
- I have to get up even earlier on Saturday mornings to have some resemblance of sanity and inner peace for the weekend (it gives me alone time)
- I love doing nails with my girls on rainy Sunday afternoon
- Maya thinks that Sonya came out of her belly, to which Sonya laughed and said that it's silly since Maya's belly is small
- I get dizzy and nauseous spinning at zaiki-speed on the tire swing (Husband thinks it's funny)
- Sonya likes playing "bird soccer" at the park
- April showers, apparently, bring not only May flowers but a ridiculous allergy attacks

I believe that is all for now :) Mulling a post about Romney vs Rosen but it's old news by now. LAZY!!!!

Training time!!!

I'm mulling an idea in my head to sign up for another race - half-marathon this time, something to soothe my bruised ego after doing worse then hoped for in a St.Patty's Day 5K. Also to lose some weight before the summer.

Recent trip to the doctor forced me to face my nemesis - the scale, and of course showed some unwanted poundage. Not much, but enough to send me into the spiral of self-hatitude. Too many damn super-tasty oatmeal cookies over the winter. I guess it's obvious that if you eat half of the cookie dough BEFORE you bake it, some of the butter-brown sugar-chocolate chip-oatmeal goodness will inevitably end up on your hips and butt. DUH!

So I've begun my training. It's hard this time, I don't bounce back as quickly as I did. But I'm doing ok so far. Keeping it nice and slow, but consistent, doing some hill work, doing some long runs. :)

I like long runs - it's great thinking time, and with Gogol Bordello in my iPod, I can run forever. I love their music. My iPod has an eclectic mix of Queen, Beatles, Dropkick Murphies, Flogging Molly and Gogol Bordello with occasional cropping of Adele, Mika, and other rather obscure pop stars. Oh, and LMFAO (oh however you spell it).

But Eugene Hutz is my man. I LOVE LOVE him. If Kevin and I never met I'd marry Hutz. Seriously. Of course there's a small creepy fact that he looks a lot like my brother, but we won't go there. :) I've logged so many miles with him whispering (well, screaming really) in my ear, seen him in concert and think he is a wonderful creative being, abet self-destructive. Zaiki like his music too. How can you not?

Running and aging, or don't shoot the old(er) horse

Spring is in the air. Kinda. And it could only mean one thing - let the season of races begin.

This past weekend I participated in the obligatory, hilly, and vomit-inducing St. Patty's Day 5K. Obligatory - because my friends and I run it every year and I feel guilty if I don't sign up (I missed last one due to post-surgery recovery), hilly - there is a big freaking hill smack middle of it to squash any hopes of PR for me, and vomit-inducing - well, it's because I run it much faster than my normal pace and inevitably end up dry heaving after.

This year, the run went pretty painfully - that hill nearly killed me and the muscles in my legs are still complaining pretty loudly two days later (I think going line-dancing that night didn't particularly help matters). The race was PACKED. I don't remember it being that crowded. 1358 people!! Wow. The course is really not designed for this number and the beginning was a huge clusterfuck (yes, it's my blog and I can curse if I choose to!): the road was so packed you couldn't even pass people, let along get up to speed quickly. Add wind and cold weather to that, and I was fucked. The crowd dispersed eventually and I was able to fall into my stride without risking tripping on someone and going ass over teakettle.

Every time I race, the first 5 minutes are spent silently asking myself "why?", as my body groans and moans. Once I get going it's all good, but the starting point is usually rough. This year was not an exception, and my shin was hurting pretty bad too. I didn't have as much momentum as I hoped for, but I beat my first post-baby 5K time by about a minute. So we are improving, but  in 2008, I ran the same race and finished with 7.5 minute mile pace. Four years added about 40 seconds to that.

This year's ego boost was me  beating a 13-year old boy to the finish line. Yes, yes, I did. And it made me happy. Because, you know, nothing says "I'm soo-o cool" more than passing teenage boys in a family-friendly race...Hey, at least I didn't elbow him.

As I get older, I'm noticing a definite shift toward slower pace, but my endurance is much-much higher than 4 years ago. 5Ks are the domain of younger people, in my opinion. I'll stick to 10Ks and half-marathons. This year, my goal is to finish 13.1 miles in May under 2 hours. Last year I finished in 2 hours 2 minutes, so I think shaving off about 2 minutes off of my time is doable. :)

The day was finished by watching a parade, cooking and then going out zaiki-free to line dance to Colorado Cafe, where I indulged myself by drinking club soda with lime and imagining I was a cowboy while trying not to trip on my own feet. Yee-ha. There's another sign of aging: I did not ride the mechanical bull at the joint unlike 4 years ago, when I'd be first in line. :)

To VFF Or Not To VFF?

My foot neuroma is back and I'm trying to strangle it permanently with alcohol injections, which, turns out, are covered by my health insurance (yay!!). In the light of trying to run more as painlessly as possible I've gotten new running shoes, also by Brooks. Not Green Silence, since I think they were a culprit in neuroma appearance, but Pure Flow. I like the shoe so far: it's more cushy and has a little more substance to it...The drawback is that it's heavier and transitioning took a little bit. But the shoes are broken in already (double yay!!!) and are very comfortable for my daily runs. They do tend to run a little more snug so if you have wide feet beware!

My witch foot doctor thinks that I need more cushioning in the front of the shoe, since I strike first with the forefoot. That got me thinking: what about Vibram Five Fingers (VFF) shoes? I've been lusting after Bikilas for a lo-o-ong time, but wasn't sure if those would work for me in light of the annoying neuroma that just won't go away... So this is the question: to Vibram or not to Vibram?

Reviews generally praise five-finger-minimalist shoes to high heavens. They look really funky, which I like, but are they really practical? Since I run around a town, pesky issues like dog poop and broken glass are real...Hmmm...

Basically, there are two camps (just like with everything, I guess):

First, we have people who love and rave about VFFs - "most comfortable shoe ever"; "best for running"; and my favorite "these shoes feel fast". I'm guessing these are people who are mechanically very efficient and slightly obsessed with running. Been there, done that, miss it, but due to the presence of Raging Toddlers can't indulge in. Having two kids puts a cramper on doing long runs regularly and interferes with your life revolving around your weekly miles.

But then there is an underbelly of concerns: stress fractures, aggravating old injuries, which I have plenty of! Also, I'm afraid of blisters. I don't like blisters. Some runners wrote about bloody blisters on the inside of their feet after running in Bikilas. Does it sound like comfort to you? No, me either. And "oh just slap some duck tape on those and you'll be fine" approach never did it for me. Yes, I'm a wimp. I like my feet intact and not bleeding.

I did try Bikilas at a running store last year. You know how long it took me to put them on? 5 minutes. You can't really wear socks with VFFs, and getting every piggy into its own little house, especially if the house is made of rubber, is a time-consuming task. Either way, any purchasing decisions will be postponed until the warmer weather.
Meanwhile, we are baking rock-star cookies for nice people, candy-coal for naughty. Hohoho!

Foot neuroma, mousetraps and other injuries

This week marks the start of something remarkable, wonderful that I never thought I could experience again: I am back to running! Yay! After two months of dealing with painful and annoying neuroma in my right foot, I’ve been running again. I’m slow, my endurance is shot and I need new running shoes, but at least I’m doing it.

The sordid tale began with wearing uncomfortable shoes to work, coupled with running in Brooks Green Silence that don’t support my natural foot strike, forcing me to land repeatedly on the ball of my feet. Great shoes though, wide, comfortable and super-super light. I did half-marathon in them this spring, and had no foot issues whatsoever up to that point. As my weekly mileage increased, I noticed repeated numbness and pain in the ball of my foot. After about a month of limping, I went to highly, ahem, capable foot doctor who waived a chicken bone took x-rays of my foot and told me to stop running for now. That was in June. After constant whining on my part, repeated visits, co-pays and two cortisone shots, I ordered orthotic inserts. Still waiting to receive the left one. In the meantime, the pain gradually went away. I have to be careful, take it slow (running with the girls in the stroller has been great, it adds to endurance training and keeps me from sprinting) and ice my foot after running.

These are the treatment options should the pain persist or return:

1. Orthopedic inserts (can’t speak to them, don’t have them yet)

2. Cortisone shots – actually did wonders for me, although the process is a little freaky

3. Should the orthotics provide no long-term relief, alcohol injections into the nerve to destroy it. Those actually been shown to have high success rate (80%), but most insurance plans don’t cover them, check with your doctor

4. Last, but not least – nerve removal. Done as an outpatient procedure, the side effect is permanent numbness of the affected toes. Not fun but covered by most insurance plans (gotta love American healthcare, no?). I had a nerve-numbing agent injected into my foot, and not being able to feel two toes out of five is a bit unsettling…

In case you are wondering, foot neuroma is characterized by feeling of numbness, “pebble”-feeling in the bottom of the foot, and tingling. It is worse in the mornings, and wearing narrow shoes or running shoes with minimal support can trigger it. Initially, I had to wear an orthopedic boot for a month, which helped to reduce the pressure on the spot.

In other reassuring news – Sonya’s finger got caught in the mousetrap over the weekend. Because you know, I don’t feed my kids so they have to scavenge for food.

A cautionary tale for all cookie-lovers:

Once upon a time, Kevin and I decided to do an addition on our house. The construction dislodged a family of mice that was determined to have its revenge. With floors being semi-finished, there was a small hole around the radiator pipe. Little nimble mice kept climbing through it inside, eating all our food and pooping. In retaliation, we set up a mousetrap. Since (based on previous experiences) even our mice are foodies, they refused to eat usual mouse-food (like peanut butter, cheese, etc), we bated it with Nilla Waifer cookie. It worked, one visitor met his/her untimely death, and we bated the trap again for good measure. So it sat there, silent yet deadly, for a day…

Meanwhile Saturday was upon us. Maya and Sonya stole the box of Nilla Waifers from the kitchen counter and ate them all. Then they decided to see if anything was left on the floor (sure, the most logical place to look for food!). Sonya came across the mousetrap, rejoiced to see the cookie in it, but nothing is free in this cruel-cruel world as we all know. You can imagine the rest. As I held sobbing Sonya in my lap with an ice pack around her finger, Maya wisely mentioned “sissy, no touching! It was mouse’s present!”. J

Coming soon: why we are afraid of raccoons or how Disney stole my children’s sleep, and why we like Laurie Berkner.