Pain and Running..

Greetings!

A lot has been happening as of lately. First and foremost, I’m back into the running scene! Marathon training started on 12/26 for my very first marathon on 4/29/12 in historic Gettysburg PA. The first week is pretty mild and consists of only 3 three mile runs and one 6 mile run. We got to do the first run outside on the C&O canal. It was quite nice. It’s the first outside run I’ve had since 11/19. It was chilly, and windy but we warmed up quick and finished in 33 minutes. This is pretty much where we left off pace wise, so hopefully that month off didn’t cause too much of a fitness loss. I look back to my 16.2 mile run in November and remember just how hard it was. I know that tackling the marathon will be quite a challenge but hopefully more rewarding than the 4 months of hard work we are going to do in training. I’ve also signed up for my very first Rock and Roll race! I’m doing the RnR DC on St. Patty’s day! It should be a fun time. I really am having a lot of fun with the Half marathon distance. I guess I’ll know after my marathon if I will ever choose to do another or move into ultras.

On a more personal note, I’ve got some weird medical things going on that I’m hoping do not impede my running and training schedule.  For as long as I can remember I’ve always had problems with my knees hurting and aching. Eventually it became elbows, wrists, and fingers in addition to my knees. In the month that I took off running my aches and pains really started to take over my normal life. I had a swollen ankle with horrible pain that appeared with no injury, and yet the x-ray’s show nothing. I’ve had weak limbs, aching arms and legs, weird tingling sensations in my shoulder blades, neck and back.. and a whole other slew of strange things all start to act up at once. I made several visits to the doctors that ended  with nothing but pointless antibiotic and curious shrugs. It’s really been frustrating. Finally after ending up in the hospital after both my legs locked up and left me unable to walk, did I get a doctor that finally seemed much more interested in helping me out. I explained to him the incident with my legs and the next incident only a few days later that happened when my shoulder blade locked up and I could not move it and had very limited range of motion. He referred me to a Rheumatologist and a Neurologist to get me pointed in the right direction. I’m not scared, yet more focused on finding out what is wrong with me and moving on to management and treatment. I’m beginning to feel crazy. I know I look normal, but I feel like a 90 year old in a 25 year old body. The simplest things can be hard for me at times. In the mornings my swollen wrists prevent me from doing anything from opening a water bottle to unzipping my wallet. I always hurt, and ache. I’m always thinking “Why me? I’m 25 years old and I’ve run 3 half marathons..why can’t I do these simple tasks?” So anyway, I hope to have any appointment with a Rheumatologist soon and we can get going on finding out what’s up with my body!

Annapolis Finish Line…

Finishing the Annapolis half with another 10 minute PR!

It’s been awhile! I can’t seem to keep up with this blogging thing. Sorry about that..

I’ve decided that I’m going to open this Blog up to more of my regular (boring) life than just writing about running. I figure it will keep me writing more regularly, and hopefully I’ll have a couple people interested in reading.

First and foremost.. today is day 13 of no running. I’m starting to get used to it and that’s a little scary. I’m finding more time in my life to do the things I’ve been needing to do for awhile now and that’s a relief. We did got for a 20 mile bike ride on the western maryland rail trail this past sunday and that was the only exercise I’ve had in 13 days. Whew.. not good. On the good side though, today I signed up at my local gym and plan on going as soon as I can. I plan on using the elliptical as well as doing some strength training before Marathon training starts at the end of this month. The small running hiatus will continue until 12/19. I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense to everyone else but I need to start marathon training with fresh knees, legs, and toes (one nail is hanging on). I’m not going to make my 600 mile goal this year. Not even close. I’m at 499 right now and if I don’t plan on running until 12/19 I’ll be lucky to make it 550. But.. it’s a lot more than I ran last year, which was only like 230 miles, so I’ll take it. With Marathon training taking up the first 4 months of my year, I’ll have 450 miles in only 4 months, so I know I’ll make it next year, but I also need to up my mileage goal too. Maybe 800? I don’t want to make it anything too unattainable. I was pretty close to 600 this year. That makes me happy.

 I should get some exercise tomorrow because I’ll be taking a trip with my boyfriend to Fell’s Point in Baltimore tomorrow. We are going to walk around the town..maybe get some lunch and a couple drinks. It should be a nice time. I’ve only been there once and it was a Wednesday night. Sunday I’ll also be getting a lot of walking and time on my feet. I’ve got two photography appointments for my (hopefully) budding photography business Britt’s Niche Photography. I’ve always had a passion for photography and for a long time I didn’t really care much about photographing people because I didn’t think I was good at it. There are a lot of mechanics to making pictures of people look nice. However, I’ve found out recently that photographing children is one of my favorite things and I hope I can get this off the ground and truly do what I want with my life.

Have a great friday!!