Face The Music Friday #31 (Plus The Update You’ve All Been Waiting For!)

Fitness this week:

Saturday – 1 hr Unleashed OCF class + 4 mile hike

Sunday – Rest/Easter business

Monday – 2.62 miles for Boston

I don’t know if you heard of, or took part in, the Boston Marathon World Run, but I had pledged 25 miles. I finished the week before, but didn’t realize you could get fun virtual swag.

 

 

 

Tuesday & Wednesday – Rest

Thursday – 1 hr Unleashed OCF class

Friday – not sure yet, but I have lots of stuff to do around the house today and will probably just chill today and tomorrow since I have the Newport 10 Miler on Sunday

 

Well, looks like the ol’ blog is taking a backseat again, but it’s OK – it just leaves you more time to yearn to read my words again. Life has been fairly busy as of late. Tara and I had a really nice couple of days last weekend. We had plans for a mid afternoon lunch/dinner for Easter at my aunt’s house, so we checked with Julie and Dan about making a weekend out of it since we hadn’t seen them for a bit. They live only 15 minutes from my aunt’s house which meant we wouldn’t have to drive the hour plus up there and back on the same day as dinner.

I found out that Unleashed was hosting BoldrDash last Saturday morning as part of their race series they’ve started where the race directors come in and promote local races and you can get discounted entries and swag, as soon as you finish a kickass workout of course. I wanted to check out BoldrDash because it’s on 5/3 – which I originally had a race, but the race date got changed and I had to cancel due to volunteering on the same date they moved it to. I wasn’t sure what discounts BoldrDash were offering, but because it’s such a last minute registration for me, I didn’t want to sign up online at full price so I made plans to take the Saturday 6:30am class and then check them out afterwards. And yes, I got suckered in and signed up, so now I’ll have a “minor” warm-up race before Tough Mudder at the end of the month. I’m looking forward to it though – I’ve been told it’s a GREAT local race and I’ll be running with my Unleashed teammates so I’m excited.

After class and signing up for the race, I headed home to do a couple of things in the yard and then we drove up to MA. The weather last weekend was gorgeous, so we planned a hike around the Ponkapoag Pond Trail that Tara and I had done once last year. We knew it would be an easy beginner trail for Julie and Dan because most of it is gravel/dirt road and not so much an actual trail through the woods. I think it was a great time and it was fun doing something active together as a group.

 

Testing out my new Camelbak hiking pack I got for Christmas!

Me and Jules

 

 

The rest of the afternoon/night we just spent hanging out. It was also nice being able to chill with them on Sunday morning. Normally we’d drive up Friday night and leave Sunday morning, but because our dinner at my aunt’s wasn’t until 2:30 we didn’t have to rush off anywhere. I had brought my running stuff to get 4 miles in, but my shins and ankles hurt so bad from the hike I decided not to push it.

Easter was nice – just our small crew from my mom’s side of the family. My aunt, uncle, cousin & bf, my grandmother and me & Tara. My grandfather was working and never ended up making it there before we drove home around 4:30ish. There was lots of yummy food and we watched a little playoff hockey while we were there. I love just hanging out with them.

Monday I decided I would do that run I missed on Sunday, but what I intended to be 4 miles didn’t turn out that way. My shins were still really bothering me throughout the day, but I figured I’d try it out and see what happened. We drove up to the high school track so that I could run while Tara walked. I was OK for the first interval, but then my shins were screaming. I did a few more intervals, but couldn’t hack it so I just stopped and walked the rest of the time with Tara until I hit 2.62. I figured if I couldn’t get my 4 in, that would be perfect to do for Boston.

 

 

Speaking of Boston, I only have one thing to say – MEB!!! That was amazing! I had to work, but as soon as I got there I logged on my computer and the first thing I did was pull up the live feed of the race. I had it going in the background for hours and kept giving people updates even if they didn’t want them. I was so hoping Shalane was going to win it for the women, but you know what – she still kicked ass! Meb was a rockstar though, what an amazing finish. I only wish I could have been there and been a part of it. Maybe next year.

As for the rest of the week, well, Tara’s been a busy bee! She had the whole week off due to school vacation, so she’s tackled various projects around the house. The best one of all was our office/second guest room which is now our office/second guest room/MY RUNNING ROOM!! Now all of my workout clothes and running related gear all have one single home to live in instead of being scattered throughout the house. It’s pretty bare right now, but it was painted a cool grey color called “Pier” and we’re going to hang my medal holder I got for Christmas, as well as the awesome race photos Julie and Dan bought me. I’m sure I’ll post some pics eventually, but I pretty much suck at blogging and never remember to take pics of anything.

We also had some trees trimmed around our property line as well as had a weeping cherry tree removed that the previous owners decided would be a good idea to plant in the flower bed. Geniuses. None of the trees we trimmed actually live in our yard, but they’ve come over from the neighbor’s yard so much they were touching the house, our porch and the shed so we finally had enough. We couldn’t reach enough to trim ourselves anymore. It looks so naked, but now even more sunlight will reach the back of the house so that’s awesome – especially once we put our pool back up for the summer!

 

Tara said these guys climbed like monkeys. They were doing the trimming in the pouring rain!

 

 

OK, so…drumroll please! The most fabulous update you’ve all been waiting for….SHOES! Maybe that’s not such a big deal, but I really had you holding your breath, didn’t I?

As I’ve mentioned a few times, I’ve been seeing my sports chiropractor for a couple of months now. Since our very first appointment, she urged me to get bigger, narrow width shoes. I was wearing a size 8 regular width at the time, which I thought fit me fine. I had about a fingernail of space at the end of the toes and my foot touched both sides of the shoe – sounds fine, right? Nope. She said I had very narrow feet and should really be in a bigger shoe, length-wise, because she said my arches were like knots because my feet couldn’t stretch properly and the bone that protrudes on the outside of my foot, well, it shouldn’t do that apparently.

Every week I would go and every week she would tell me to get the other shoes. I really didn’t want to because I don’t want to spend tons of money and have to replace every shoe I own because once you stretch your foot out, the ones you have won’t fit anymore. Plus I had just gotten new running shoes a couple of months back so I didn’t want that to go to waste. So we battled every week until finally, about 3 weeks ago, she was so adamant about it that she actually said she would reimburse me for the shoes if it didn’t work out. I also figured she has nothing to gain because it’s not like she’s selling the shoes to me, so I finally caved in.

I went on Zappos since they have the free shipping both ways (in case I needed to return them) and got one of the only 3 pairs they had in stock of size 9.5 narrow width of the running shoes I already owned (Mizuno Wave Inspire 10’s). Yes, that is a size and a half bigger than my current shoe. I figured they would feel like clown shoes and I’d be tripping over my toes! Well, when I got them in they actually fit like a glove. I was totally astonished. I brought them with me a few days later for my appointment and she put two pieces of felt pads in each shoe, one under the arch and one under the ball of the foot to “spread the toes”. That felt weird for a day or two, but now I barely notice them. She said it would just help my feet adjust to the new space and get them stretched out. I have to say, I can definitely tell the difference when I’m running and she said she’s already seen improvements in my muscles releasing during my ART.

Since this was the only pair of shoes I had in my now-correct size, I had to get a note from her to wear them to work (since we have to dress business casual) so I could be wearing them at all times. Not that you’d hear me complaining about getting to wear my sneakers all day long. I gave it a couple of weeks to make sure I wouldn’t be needing to adjust anything or change my mind and decided that I would definitely replace everything in that size (except for dress shoes, which she said would be 8.5 narrow). I can’t buy all my pairs of shoes at once, but since we were going hiking last weekend we swung in to REI to get new hiking and trail running shoes (since I’ll need those for TM next month). I fell in love with the first two I put on my feet, which happened to be the only two that they had there he said would work well with a naturally narrow fit. So now I have a pair of Salomon trail running shoes and a new pair of Merrell hiking shoes. I’m not 100% on the hiking shoes yet because they are a lot more rigid than the Merrell’s that I got last year and they seem to rub my ankle bones. I haven’t worn them outside the house yet because I want to be able to return them if I need to. I ended up wearing the Salomons when we went hiking and they did amazing. I’m totally in love with those.

 

The 3 pairs of shoes I’ve replaced so far

 

 

One other quick chiropractor update, other than her telling me that she noticed my muscles releasing more easily, is that my CES that I see after her ART/adjustment told me that I’m improving there as well. My issue with this is some unfortunate news we got earlier this week from the chiropractor. Back in March, she moved from her own practice location to a small area of a gym in Providence. This wasn’t an issue for me because it was pretty close to her old office and she said it was less overhead for her so I was happy for her. However, earlier this week I received an email saying that due to insurance or whatever, that the CES Mike wouldn’t be a part of her services anymore. He would basically be working through the gym now and would be paid for his own separate appointments – at $50 for 30 minutes!! I already pay a $40 copay per visit with the chiro so basically when I go for my appointment on Monday, I won’t be seeing Mike anymore. It’s too bad, but I’ll figure it out.

On to the song choice of the week now that you’ve probably all fallen asleep. I heard this play on my iPhone on the way up to MA on Saturday morning and just kept focusing on the lyrics “my body tells me no, but I won’t quit, cause I want more”. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up nicely – especially after the massive cramping I had in class last night and my shoulder being all jacked up from the monkey bars last week.

My Body – Young The Giant

 

 

 

 

 

 

---