Streak? What streak?

Here I am with all this 'streak' speak the last few posts and yesterday I decided to break the streak.

I was in Atlantic City and having a good time. To be honest, there was really not good reason to not figure out the 'streak' mile other than, I just didn't feel like it. So I didn't make it a priority and I'm OK with that.

The fat lady has sung

Ironically, breaking the streak was the best thing that could've happened for today's run (or at least I'm choosing to believe unstreaking was the reason).  I had a long run of 8 -10 miles planned to day and hit the road. Holy gift-from-God the weather was perfect. I took my slightly over-dressed ass and started running.

It was one of those runs where it was absolutely effortless. The miles seem to fly by and I was in a comfortable groove. I was surprised to when Nike would tell me how fast I was going at the end of my miles but then I would realize that I was sweating and a little out of breath… Guess I was pushing harder than I thought but loving it.

Anyway…

Of course all can't be perfect in love and running and around 4.5 miles in I nicely rolled my left ankle.  Yippee-ki-Ay. Awesome.

There was too much going on - I was sucking down a GU (as I decided i was gonna go 10 miles) running down hill into the wind, and navigating a crazy busy car wash - cars coming in and out. I was looking up trying to make sure that I wasn't going to be crushed by a car which took my eyes off the pavement… I got foiled by a cracked sidewalk.  I barely lift my eyes off the road when I'm running around town because the sidewalks and pavement is just jacked up everywhere. It's like urban trail running.

not even close to as bad as it gets in my 'hood

Sigh.

But it felt OK enough so I ran home.

Funny, in the old days I would justify quitting a run/exercise because of some 'fake' pain and now with real pain, I find a way to justify running on it another four miles.

Loved today's run. Ankle rolling, carwash patron avoiding and all.

Average mile was something around 10:30 which is speedster McGee for me for a long run. (Sorry Jason, it's true.)

Came home iced, rested, elevated. It feels slightly sore but no swelling. I'm thinking it was more strained than sprained.

No streak means rest ankle tomorrow and get back on the road on Monday.

Oh. And in other news - I reached ONE WHOLE YEAR maintaining my weight loss of 90+ pounds! No flash in the pants here. No losing all that weight only to gain it back… Hell no, I'm no statistic. I'm keeping it off this time for good!

Yay.

XO
Jen

PS: Loving all the comments on the blog lately - keep 'em coming I so appreciate it and thank you!

A stumble, a tumble and some trouble on a morning run

Fall seven times, stand up eight.  ~Japanese Proverb

I frequently-regularly-often trip while reaching for my high ideals.  Then I giggle, or cry, and get back up.  ~Erika Harris

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I get knocked down… But I get up again - You're never going to keep me down - -Chumbawamba 

I am a huge fan of 'falling down and getting up' quotes and analogies. In fact they pop up in my blog all the time - I am all about "not being afraid to fall" and 'it's the great man' who keeps getting up and all that jazz. Of-course, I love the metaphor of it but the reality? Well. Yesterday I literally fell. on my face - actually on my palms and the somehow on the back of my shoulder.

It was a beautiful brisk morning and with the opportunity to run outside I was going to take it. I've been doing a lot of tread running lately because it's been dark when I've had time to run and my neighborhood probably isn't the safest to run around in after dark…

So I was taking that nice outdoor run. And I was cooking. I could feel myself running FAST I even was passing other runners up and I was poised to clock a winning run.

Part of the hazard of my neighborhood is steepish hills, uneven sidewalks, dodging cars, etc. I'm particularly careful to watch my footing on the hills and sidewalks because they can be tough.

I thought I was doing a good job paying attention. Really I did. But somehow the toe of my shoe caught a raised sidewalk crack on the way down a steepish hill and I found myself in that dreaded moment of OH SH!T and down I went. A woman tried to help me up who didn't think I tripped but was having a heart attack. LOL. 

I was banged up, scraped bruised arse, scraped bloody palms, sore wrist and a bleeding shoulder but do you know what I did?

I got up. And I kept on running.

I have to say that this was a new thing for me and pretty unexpected. The old me would've sat down, cried over my bleeding, cursed my bad luck, called my hubby and called it a day. But all that Ironman watching made me want to 'finish' even just this little training run. I wanted to finish strong.

As far as falls go, this was a great one. I mean, klutzy me was long over-due a tumble instead of crying my way home, I celebrated. I fell down onto concrete running fast downhill and my knees, ankles, feet, hips and legs were still in perfect working order. I didn't chip a tooth or break a bone. A few flesh wounds? Eh. Plenty of athletes have gone thru worse.  I was capable of running the way home.

And I did.

My final time on my ipod was 3 mi for 10:02 mile. That's an AWESOME time for me. And that was with falling and running much slower that last half a mile. I'm bummed because my NIKE+ for some reason didn't upload the run and now it's lost so I can't see the splits and what kind of pace I was holding for those first two miles but they must've been pretty fast (for me.)

Trail running is probably not for me. I can't even navigate pavement… but in any case -

I am kinda happy about the fall - I learned something about myself. I'm stronger than I think. And I'm proud that I fell and got back up again and I'm eternally grateful to the running universe that I wasn't seriously hurt.

Have you ever tripped during a run? 

XO

Jen

PS: I am no hero - if i thought or even had an inkling that running would've injured something seriously or if something was in red-alert pain, I would've called hubby and been shuttled home - no shame in taking care of yourself appropriately either. You can always 'get back up' another day.