Limping my way to 400 Miles

Posted in Challenges, Race Recaps by Annie T

Last night I hit the 400 mile mark in my 100 mile iPad mini challenge. Sadly I was not running triumphantly through a park or jogging confidently on the treadmill as I hit this milestone, though. Nope, instead I was cross-training on the old beat up elliptical in my garage because my left foot hurts too much to run. Boo!

After running the Run-A-Muck 5K on Saturday, September 21st I felt AWESOME! Empowered by the completion of my first adult distance race I was unstoppable and super motivated to run, run, RUN! And so I ran like crazy:

…on Sunday Matt and I ran 6 miles at Valley Forge National Park,

…on Monday before work I ran 2 miles on the treadmill,

…on Monday after work Bailey and I ran the 4.3 mile loop at Ridley Creek State Park in 38 minutes (a new record!!),

…on Tuesday after work Matt, Bailey and I ran the 4.3 mile loop at RCSP again, this time in 40 minutes.

Then I got home on Tuesday night and said, what the heck, I’ll run another mile on the treadmill, just for fun! And that’s when I realized that the outside bottom of my left foot really REALLY HURT! Uh oh…

Bailey was my running buddy during both days of Ridley Creek loops. I had her secured to me with a waist leash and I think she pushed me (or pulled me, actually) to run a little too fast for my own good!

Bailey was my running buddy during back-to-back days of Ridley Creek loops. I had her secured to me with a waist leash and I think she pushed me (or pulled me, actually) to run a little too fast for my own good!

Ignoring the stabbing, cramping pain in my foot, I woke up early on Wednesday and ran 2 miles on the treadmill before realizing that I might actually be injured. I then did some internet-aided self diagnosis and determined that I am likely suffering from Peroneal Tendonitis.

In short, Peroneal Tendonitis means that the tendons that go around the back of my ankle bone down along the outside of my foot are inflamed and irritated. This is apparently a classic “overuse” injury which makes perfect sense considering I ran over 20 miles in 4 days of 5K-induced euphoria. Oops!

My Peroneal Tendonitis (or whatever it is) was causing some pretty intense pain along the outside of my left foot last week, so much so that I realized that it would be stupid to keep trying to run through it. I had previously had a 4+ mile a day (walk, hike, or run) streak going since July 23rd but that came to an abrupt end last Wednesday. On Thursday I slowly limped my way out to the old elliptical that we retired to the garage after getting our treadmill and I’ve been cross training on that all week. 😦 At least I’ve been able to keep my 1 mile a day streak going – yesterday was day 94 of that.

In addition to logging some quality time on the elliptical I’ve also been icing like a fiend (even under my desk at work!), and taking Ibuprofen. My foot is feeling significantly better now but I am a little nervous about running. I might start out with a really slow jog on the treadmill in the next day or two and see how that goes…

Here’s the official tally for this week. Not quite what I wanted, but hopefully by my next post I’ll be back to running!

Miles since last post: 41.8
Days since last post: 12
Average Daily Miles since July 18th: 5.23
TOTAL MILES: 403.0

Related Posts:
• Run-A-Muck 5K (9/22/13)
• 300 miles and a 5K in my future (9/9/13)
• 200 miles! (8/26/13)
• 100 Miles in 21 Days! (8/7/13)
• 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge: 49 Miles to Go! (7/29/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)

9Sep2013

300 Miles! And a 5k in my future…

Posted in Challenges, Race Recaps by Annie T

This afternoon I hit the 300 mile mark in my 100 mile iPad mini challenge! Over the last 100 miles I’ve run a lot on my treadmill and I’ve also had fun hiking in Ridley Creek State Park, Valley Forge National Park, and at a rural central PA destination we fondly call “the Hunting Camp” (more on that in my next post). Here’s the official tally:

Miles since last post: 86.3
Days since last post: 14
Average Daily Miles since July 18th: 5.57
TOTAL MILES: 301.0

I am now running with an official purpose… in less than 2 weeks I am going to run a 5K! I haven’t run a distance race since my ill-fated attempt at Cross Country my freshman year of high school so I’m a little nervous (OK, actually a LOT nervous!). Still, I’ve been working hard and last week I actually beat my best high school 5K time by about 30 seconds! (I was running on the flat, even treadmill, mind you, but it was a victory nonetheless!)

The 5K that I’ll be running on September 21st is a true off-road cross country trek, complete with rolling (BIG) hills and a possible stream crossing. We’ll see how it goes! 🙂

The 5K will take place across these beautiful rolling farmlands in Willistown Township, PA. [cell phone pic]

Related Posts:
• 200 miles! (8/26/13)
• 100 Miles in 21 Days! (8/7/13)
• 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge: 49 Miles to Go! (7/29/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)

26Aug2013

200 Miles in 37 Days!

Posted in Challenges, Race Recaps by Annie T

Guess what? I completed 200 Miles in 37 Days!!! Back on July 18th I challenged myself to run and walk 100 miles by August 28th. I reached my 100 mile goal on August 7th, hit 150 on August 15th, and ran through my 200th mile on August 23rd. After today’s 5.6 mile run I’m at 214 miles total with 2 days still left to go in my original challenge!

Miles since last post: 113.6
Days since last post: 19
Days until Deadline: 2
TOTAL MILES: 214.7

If you had told me in mid-July when we got our treadmill that I would soon be averaging over 5 miles a day I would have laughed (or actually cried) at the thought of it. I started out slow with some 2-3 mile days in the beginning and a lot more walking than running but as the weeks have gone by running has gotten easier and I have even had a few 7+ mile days! I’ve continued to track my progress on my Excel graph and I’ve also started to track my best treadmill times for 1, 2, 3, and 4 miles. I’m not ready to go out and run a race or anything, but I’m still pretty proud of how my times have fallen during the past month.

So where do I go from here? Forward! I’m going to keep tracking my miles and I will continue to set mini mileage goals for myself since that has worked thus far to keep me motivated. I’ve now decided that when I hit 250 miles I get to buy these Athleta running tights for myself. They will be just in time for the Fall weather that I hope September brings next week!

Related Posts:
• 100 Miles in 21 Days! (8/7/13)
• 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge: 49 Miles to Go! (7/29/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)

7Aug2013

100 Miles in 21 Days!

Posted in Challenges, Race Recaps by Annie T

I did it!!! I completed my goal of 100 miles in just HALF the time I originally planned! My 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge officially began on July 18th and this afternoon at 4:45PM after just 21 days I breezed by the 100 mile mark on my treadmill. Woohoo!

Miles since last post: 50.4
Days since last post: 9
Days until Deadline: 20
TOTAL MILES: 101.1 !!!

Matt helped me make a cool Excel graph that charts my daily miles, shows my total miles completed so far, and (my favorite part) predicts out my future miles based on my current pace. I love graphs and charts and it’s been very rewarding to enter in my miles each day to see my progress. Here’s the graph as of today:

So… this means that I can get an iPad Mini now! Of course now that I’ve ‘earned’ it I’m a little worried that Apple is going to announce the release of an iPad Mini 2 right after I invest in the old model. I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking about this (I’ve had a lot of time to think on the treadmill!) and I have decided that I’m going to wait and purchase a new iPad Mini 2 when it comes out. The release date has not been revealed yet so I will spend a little more time reading ‘real’ books until then! 🙂

So where do I go from here? I am going to increase my original challenge since apparently 100 miles was too easy. My new goal is to complete 150 miles by my original deadline of August 28th. Full speed ahead!

Related Posts:
• 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge: 49 Miles to Go!
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge

29Jul2013

100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge: 49 Miles to Go!

Posted in Challenges, Race Recaps by Annie T

Last Tuesday I challenged myself to run 100 miles in 42 days and I’ve been running like crazy ever since! Wednesday will mark the end of week two of my challenge and I’m currently on pace to complete 100 miles in just 24 days!

Miles since last post: 31.3
Days since last post: 6
Miles until iPad Mini: 49.3
Days until Deadline: 29

I realize that my timing is sort of backwards with the whole fitness thing… most people would have started working out before getting married to get ready for the big day but I, on the other hand, waited until after our wedding to get back into a serious exercise routine. In my mind the reasoning is very simple — there’s no way that I had time to run/walk 5 miles a day in addition to all of the DIY wedding projects, vendor coordination and planning that I needed to get done before the wedding. Now that our wedding is over and life is returning to normal I feel like I have oodles of free time and I’m happy to spend some of it working out! 🙂

Oh yeah… I got new purple running shoes on Saturday because my old sneakers were woefully worn out. Like ’em?

Related Posts:
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge

23Jul2013

100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge!

Posted in Challenges, Race Recaps by Annie T

After 205 days of streaking our old Schwinn elliptical machine is starting to fall apart. We have taken this as a sign that it is time to retire the elliptical and invest in a more serious piece of fitness equipment… a treadmill! After some online research we settled on a NordicTrack and our new treadmill arrived by truck at 9:20PM last Wednesday night (gotta love that “12-6” delivery window..!). Undeterred by the late hour, we happily pushed, pulled and heaved the 350 lb. machine up a half flight of stairs and carefully maneuvered it into the spot that the elliptical had occupied in our little home gym. After some minor assembly we were good to go!

Our new treadmill!

My workout routine has completely changed since the treadmill arrived. Throughout the first half of July I had been faithfully sticking to my mile a day streak, but now over the past six days I’ve been averaging more than THREE miles a day! I’m sure the novelty of the treadmill’s map-based workouts and HD video runs will wear off eventually, but for now I’m going to keep my extreme workout schedule going by setting a goal:

If I complete 100 miles on the treadmill by August 28th I can buy myself an iPad mini!

Why an iPad Mini, you ask? After lugging three books along on our honeymoon (and reading all of them) I came to the realization that a tiny eReader capable of housing dozens of books would be a great investment. I looked at various options and determined that an eReader that also happens to be an iPad sounds pretty awesome! As for the origin of my August 28th deadline? Easy. We’ll be going to a hunting camp in central PA for Labor Day weekend and I hope to spend lots of quality time in a rocking chair on the porch reading books on my iPad mini! 🙂

Treadmill and TV

Only 80 miles to go!

So… 100 miles by August 28th. Including the miles that I’ve put in since last Thursday, this leaves me with 35 days to complete 80.6 miles. That’s about 2.3 miles a day. Think I can do it? I’ll be posting updates that look like this:

Miles since last post: 19.4
Miles until iPad Mini: 80.6
Days until Deadline: 35

Wish me luck!!

3Jul2013

July Update: A new streak begins and the garden keeps on growing!

Posted in Adventures at Home, Challenges by Annie T

Matt and I are home after spending 10 days in beautiful St. Lucia and a few days in Western Maryland for the DockDogs Regional Championships. I’ll post honeymoon photos and the dockdogs recap soon, but in the meantime I have some updates!

After 205 consecutive days my mile-a-day streak ended the day before our honeymoon began (June 13th). I initially thought I would keep on streaking while in St. Lucia but for the first week we were staying in the rainforest on top of a mountain at the end of a precariously washed out dirt road so running a mile a day wasn’t really feasible. Oh well! 🙂 As of July 1st I have started a new streak. We’ll see if I can beat 205 days… I’ll reach that goal on January 21, 2014.

In other news, we had record rainfall in June and as a result my vegetable garden has been growing like crazy! Check out this photo that I took today… a comparison shot from my May 10th gardening post is below.

Quite a difference, right? When we got home from St. Lucia I was shocked to see how much the parsley, thyme and tomatoes had grown and I was overwhelmed by the enormous zucchini plants!! (I think my basil was overwhelmed too… it’s now living in the shadow of those large-leafed behemoths!) Here are some other photos of my garden and back yard flowers from today.

Purple Hosta Flowers

Baby Green Tomatoes!

Pink Zinnia

Mmm… Basil

Shasta Daisy

Mint

Monster Zucchini Plants

While I was wandering around with my camera this afternoon I was surprised to spot a white-tailed deer in the front yard. It is quite common for us to see deer in our area (usually in other peoples’ yards or dashing across the road!) but it is very, VERY rare to see a deer in our yard because Bailey has made it her life mission to stalk and chase any and all wildlife that comes within her invisible fence boundary.

I guess the neighborhood deer herd realized that Bailey was not at home for most of June and as a result they are now making themselves comfortable in the front yard. Luckily Bailey was on her game this afternoon and as soon as this deer made a move Bailey (who must have been stalking it from a different angle as I snapped away with the camera) came blasting over, chased it away, and then proceeded to roll and rub in the deer’s scent for a good 30 seconds. Good dog, Bailey (even if you do smell now…)

Oh hello, deer in the front yard

Bailey on patrol!

Soaking up all of that deer stinkiness

Well, that’s it for tonight’s update. Happy 4th of July and have a great holiday weekend!!

Related Posts:
• Streaking, Reflections, and Other December Challenges (December 3, 2012)
• Streaking, Day 100 (March 1, 2013)
• Let the 2013 Gardening Season Begin! (May 12, 2013)
• Waiting for Red Tomatoes (July 4, 2012)

1Mar2013

Streaking, Day 100!

Posted in Challenges, Hikes by Annie T

This morning I completed day 100 of my mile-a-day “streaking” challenge, woohoo! The challenge started out back on Thanksgiving Day as part of the Runners World Holiday Running Streak (#RWRunStreak) from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, but when 2013 rolled around I just kept on going!

On a typical weekday I wake up at 5:15 and elliptical my mile while watching the morning news. The downside of this is that the news is pretty boring (how many traffic reports can one person watch??) and yes, it’s early, but after I’m done I feel great all day knowing that I’ve finished my mile. I also like having a routine, even if it means that I now have to pack my running clothes on vacations or business trips.

Here are a few of my more memorable miles over the past 100 days:

Day 13 (12/4/12)
I ‘ellipticalled’ a mile in the morning and then we went on a 5 mile hike in Ridley Creek State Park the afternoon! That was a big day for exercise.

Day 41 (01/01/13)
Matt, Bailey and I ran the first 2.4 miles of the multi-purpose loop at Ridley Creek State Park. Not bad for New Year’s Day!

Day 52 (01/12/13)
We ran a mile on a chilly morning in Thornbury Township Park. For some reason this felt much harder than the 2.4 miles on 1/1. (The Thornbury Park Photo is actually from September. I wish it had been that beautiful there in January!)

Days 54-59 (01/14-19/13)
Completed a week of miles on a treadmill in the Palazzo gym in Las Vegas. I was nervous at first because I usually elliptical in the privacy of my own home but I felt a huge sense of accomplishment afterwards! (And I think I managed to look tough and strong while running which is really half the battle, right?) 🙂

Days 94-95 (02/23-24/13)
Ran around Cape Charles on the eastern shore of Virginia while we were in town with friends for the Barrier Island Center Oyster Roast. On day 94 my iPhone app got confused and said that I ran 1.7 miles in 13 minutes (which is impossible) but I let myself believe that was true when I enjoyed all-you-can-eat oysters, clams, BBQ pulled pork and wine later in the day.

I look forward to keeping my streak going until Matt and I get married on June 8th. Wish me luck!

11Dec2012

Ridley Creek State Park

Posted in Hikes by Annie T

In honor of my 100th post (yes, it’s my 100th post!) I’m going to feature one of my very favorite hiking spots ever: Ridley Creek State Park. “Ridley Creek,” as we call it, is a 2,600 acre park located in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, approximately 15 miles west of Philadelphia. It also happens to be about 2 miles from our house which makes it a very convenient place to enjoy nature while getting some exercise!

Matt and I both grew up in this area so we’ve been coming to Ridley Creek State Park with our families since long before we met one another in college. Come to think of it, we both spent SO much time here as kids that it’s actually pretty likely that we unknowingly passed each other on the bike trail or splashed around in the creek together at some point in our childhoods.

Ridley Creek features miles of secluded hiking trails, multiple family-friendly picnic areas, and a 4.5 mile paved trail. The paved trail is popular with walkers, runners, and bikers. The trail has mile-markers every tenth of a mile and the scenery along the way includes thick woods, cornfields, deserted 19th century stone houses, and, of course, Ridley Creek itself. Matt, Bailey, and I walk this trail fairly often. Most recently we went on Day 14 of my mile-a-day “Streak” and the next day I was definitely feeling the combined effects of the hilly 4.5 mile walk and my morning mile!

In addition to the paved trail, Matt and I also enjoy hiking in the much more secluded northern section of the park. This area is usually utilized by horseback riders but we started to frequent it after discovering an off-road hunter’s parking lot (1) near our house last February. The 4.25 mile trail can be a bit difficult to follow if you don’t know where you’re going but I love how sections of it makes you feel like you’re 100 miles away from civilization or, better yet, like you’ve gone back in time. In fact, if you follow the gas pipeline right-of-way up the (very steep) hill you’ll actually come across a forgotten cemetery that hails back to the 1800s. Cool!

Wild Geraniums on the 4.25 mile hiking trail

Old stone culvert on the 4.25 mile hiking trail

Matt and Annie on the 4.25 mile trail in February

If you’re ever in Delaware County looking for a good place to take a hike I’d definitely recommend stopping by Ridley Creek State Park. If you have been to Ridley Creek before please let me know what your favorite trail is in the comments section below! 🙂

Related Links:

Official DCNR Map of Ridley Creek State Park
DCNR’s Ridley Creek State Park Web Page
Friends of Ridley Creek State Park (they have a good map of hiking trails here)
Overview of the Park’s Hunting Hill Mansion from my favorite local news source, Media Patch

3Dec2012

Streaking, Reflections, and Other December Challenges

Posted in Challenges by Annie T

I don’t usually take part in online challenges but I am making several exceptions this month! Here’s a quick run down of the fun challenges that I will be participating in for December:

1. I’m Going Streaking!!

As a part of the Runner’s World “Streak,” I have committed to run, walk, or elliptical at least 1 mile every day between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. I completed my mile for day 12 of the streak this morning and I feel great!

“Streaking” is a big deal for me because, although I was a runner in college, I’ve really done very, very little running since graduating in 2007. I am usually quite content to come home from work and make dinner/watch TV/blog/do anything besides exercise. But all of that has changed since I started my streak on Thanksgiving. Now I actually wake up BEFORE work (something I never would have believed that I’d ever do!) and I elliptical my mile while groggily watching the morning traffic and news. It’s an awesome feeling to come home from work and know that I have already finished my exercising for the day. 🙂

I have to give a quick shout out to Jocelyn from Running Noodle because without Jocelyn I never would have known that the Streak challenge existed. I read Jocelyn’s “Streaking” Post last winter and decided then and there that I would try streaking myself this year. I learned this weekend that streaking is actually a whole blog/twitter/social media “thing” with it’s own hashtag (#RWStreak) so I guess I’ll start tagging my streaking posts from now on!

2. Weekly Photo Challenge: REFLECTION

I kept seeing posts with beautiful “reflection” photos featured in my WordPress reader so I did some investigating and learned that WordPress sponsors a Weekly Photo Challenge. It’s easy to participate so I thought this would be a fun way to add to my December challenges. I think to actually join the challenge properly I need to create a brand new post titled “Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflection” but this post will have to suffice for week 1.

I have two photos featuring reflections for this week. The first (above) is a rare self-portrait of me taking a photo of Bailey via the car’s rear view mirror. She loves car rides! (Ignore my wrinkly forehead… I was thinking hard!) The second (below) is a photo of a Delmarva DockDog named Sam. I love how Sam and his toy are converging with their reflections!

3. 25 Days of Christmas Photo Challenge

Yes, another photo challenge. (When I decide to do something I go all out!) I learned about this photo challenge from Pami at Pa-BLAM. There’s a nice holiday-themed topic for each day and, like Pami, I will probably do a post every 7 days or so with the photos from the previous week. I’m going to have to rely on some holiday photo archives for a few of these though… I mean, I HOPE that I see snow on December 7th but at this point that’s not looking too likely!

OK, well that just about sums up my December challenges. I think that #3 is going to be really fun but overall I am most excited about Streaking. Wish me luck! 🙂