Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families!

This year I have quite a few things to be thankful for.

First, I'm thankful for my great friends and family.


Just a few of my friends at the WVU tailgate


Family at the Oyster House in Rehoboth Beach this summer

I'm also thankful to finally be out of both of my air casts. It was a year ago tomorrow that I discovered my first stress fracture on a 10-mile run near my parents' house. And so began the saga of really crappy running injuries.


First stress fracture


Second stress facture

So I'm very grateful to have two healthy feet that I'm slowly introducing to physical activity again.



I'm thankful that despite all the injuries and having to drop out of many races during the year, I was also somehow able to set a new half marathon PR at the Nike Women's Half in April.



I'm thankful that this was the year I was finally able to ditch roommates and move into my very own apartment (apartment tour coming soon I promise!)


I'm verrrrry thankful for the rooftop pool.

I'm thankful for coworkers who make going to work in the morning fun.


Hanging out at the White House with some coworkers

I'm thankful for many more things, but I'll spare you the very long post that would happen if I tried to write them all out.

Wishing you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving!

Greetings from PA!

I'm already home in Allentown for Thanksgiving. I wasn't supposed to head home until today, but I called an audible yesterday and changed my mind. I didn't want to be driving home in this crappy weather that's supposed to engulf the entire East Coast.

I packed a bag full of running clothes, but I haven't been able to motivate myself to go outside in this freezing cold temperatures/rain and supposed snow that's on the way. Maybe I'll find some motivation some time later this week.

Instead, my mom is putting me to work cleaning the bathrooms and stuff. So glad this is what I come home to do.

Otherwise, I plan to spend this week majorly relaxing. I'm hoping to finally finish my book club book, catch up with some friends and family and not do too much else.

How are you spending Thanksgiving week?

I can't believe we're more than half way through November already. I guess that means it's time for a Pile on the Miles Check In.

At the beginning of the month, I set a goal to run three times a week for an average of 30 minutes each time. It seemed like a pretty attainable goal, and I've done a pretty decent job of getting my runs in -- though I haven't been perfect.

The first week I managed to get in two of my runs before I came down with a cold that knocked me out for the rest of the week. I could function OK, but I just didn't have the energy for running. I was trying to plan my runs on my lunch breaks on the days I worked from home so it wasn't too dark or too cold, but I still ended up switching over to my fall running gear at some point.



I'm enjoying running in capris and long sleeve shirts again.

This past week I was able to hit all three of my runs -- including my very first run after work since we changed the clocks earlier this month.



I couldn't believe how dark it was outside at 5:30 p.m. I did my regular 3-ish mile loop, and I was cutting through one of the neighborhoods that I usually run through during the day. I didn't realize it didn't have street lights, so with all the trees it was pretty dark and I could barely see a foot in front of me. I'm lucky I didn't bite it on some uneven pavement.

Next time I do a run after work, I'm going to have to find a route with more street lights. That probably means going back to my boring out and back route along the main drag. It's a heavily trafficked street with a sidewalk and lots of street lights, so while visibility isn't perfect, it's definitely better than in some of the neighborhoods.

This week I don't really expect to hit any of my runs. I got sick on Friday, and the medicine my doctor put me on has some wicked side effects including loss of appetite, dizziness and nausea -- all of which I've experienced to some extent over the last few days. I tried running on Saturday while on the medicine and by the time I got home I was on the verge of yakking, passing out or possibly both. So I'm pressing pause on running until I'm off these antibiotics. No sense in running if it's just going to make me feel like crap.

I don't love the set back, but it is what it is, and there's not a whole lot I can do about it. So I'm just going to try to deal for a few more days.

How are you doing with your November goals?

So during my furlough, you may remember that I mentioned I was going to experiment with P90X as a way to start rebuilding some of the strength and endurance I'd lost while recovering from my stress fracture.



At the time, I still wasn't really able to run without pain, and I needed a workout with a set plan that would keep me on track and coming back each day. I liked that P90X followed a strict schedule. I figured that would help me get back into the groove of regular workouts.

I stuck with P90X really well for the first couple of weeks, but after that, it was just sort of all downhill. I couldn't find the motivation to do workouts that I didn't like or agree with the philosophy behind them.



One of the biggest things I didn't like about the P90X program was the length of each workout and how few muscle groups you actually worked out in that time.

Each DVD was at least 60 minutes long, many were longer than that, closer to an hour and ten minutes, and the yoga DVD was even 90 minutes. That's a lot of time to carve out of your day, so once my furlough ended finding the extra time became a challenge.

But what really got me was how you spent that hour+ of your workout time. Each DVD focused on a very small set of muscle groups. So in 60 minutes, you'd only workout say your biceps, triceps and shoulders and then in the next workout, you'd tackle your chest and back.

To me, that seemed like a giant waste of 60 minutes. In 60 minutes, I can do so much more. I could run six miles or take a CrossFit class that targets all of the major muscle groups in my body at once. I could take a spin class or BodyPump or pretty much do any other workout that would give me a full body workout in the time that P90X focused on two or three muscle groups.


Working out with a personal trainer. Tackling lots of muscles at once

P90X just wasn't giving me enough bang for my workout buck. We all only have so much time in our days, and I'd rather spend 60 minutes doing a complete workout in that time.

Another thing that really irked me in one DVD (and now I can't remember which one) was how Tony Horton -- the workout leader on the DVDs -- was talking all about building the "show" muscles. These are the little muscles on the front of your body that are mainly for show and vanity purposes.

It literally went against every single thing I had every learned in a CrossFit class, or even believed in myself personally. In CrossFit, one of our coaches used to call the muscles on the back of your body (think back, glutes, hamstrings, etc.) your "Go muscles." They are important muscle groups that power your body through the day and drive many of our movements.


CrossFit I miss you

But they are muscles that are often overlooked during workouts because we focus on our "show muscles" (abs, pecs, etc.). These muscles are on the front of our bodies, and yes, while obviously important to train them, doing so at the expense of the "go muscles" will leave you completely imbalanced.

Now I know P90X had a DVD dedicated solely to the back muscles, so Tony wasn't disregarding them completely, but it really grated on me the way he kept focusing on the vanity and the importance of the show muscles in the other DVD.

So at the end of the day, I just gave up on P90X. I didn't want to spend my time doing a workout program that didn't jive with my personal (and somewhat educated) view on physical fitness. There are a lot better ways I could be spending my 60 minutes of workout time.

I have a friend who is suffering from some serious IT band issues. He definitely can't run and even the simple act of walking up and down a flight of stairs hurts.

He's been asking me for some advice on how to make it better because he knows I've been there, done that with IT band issues.

So of course I've been pointing him to every runner's favorite torture device: the foam roller.



I was first introduced to the foam roller in 2008 when I was in physical therapy in PA for some major runner's knee problems that related back to messed up IT bands and overall muscle imbalances in my lower body.

When I moved back to DC later that year and started experiencing the pain again, I decided I needed to invest in my own foam roller. I used to be really good about using it on a regular basis. But I have to say, I feel off the bandwagon and for a long time now, my foam roller has just been sitting in a closet waiting to be used.

All this talk with my friend about how he could fix his IT band reminded me that maybe as I'm easing my way back into running, I should also be putting in some time on the foam roller.

I can tell a lot of my muscles aren't happy with me as they are adjusting back to running. My calves have been insanely sore even after the shortest runs and my quads are taking a beating from the hills.



I've been wearing my compression socks the last few days to help with some of the calf soreness, and they've really seemed to help.

I haven't noticed any real signs of issues with my IT band, but I figure it doesn't hurt to use the foam roller to help prevent them from starting.

So after encouraging my friend to spend some time foam rolling every day, I decided to dig my foam roller out of the closet and did a quick session. And ohhh did it hurt so good. There were definitely a few small knots that had been building up and it felt good to try to work them out.

Other than muscle soreness though my running has been coming along really well. I've had no issues with my foot whatsoever. I'm looking forward to continuing to build my base this month before I ease into half marathon training in December.

Do you foam roll?

For as much of a football fan as I am, it always surprises people when they find out I've never been to an NFL game in person.

They all look at me funny and wonder how the girl who has Terps season tickets and spends every Saturday in the fall tailgating in College Park can have never once watched her NFL team live.


Terps homecoming

(The short story is that the Vet was not an appropriate place to take small children when I was growing up, and I never wanted to go to a game at Redskins stadium, because ew.)

But this weekend a friend of mine had an extra ticket to the Ravens game in Baltimore and invited me to tag along.

Sure I would have preferred my first NFL experience to be for my real team (that'd be the Nick Foles-led Eagles), but I wasn't about to turn down a chance to finally see a game in person, especially when the weather was pretty ideal football weather.

So Sunday I found a purse that meets the new NFL bag requirements and drove up to Baltimore to watch the Ravens play the Bengals.



Our seats were pretty high up, but we still had a good view, and the game went into overtime when Andy Dalton threw a Hail Mary that AJ Green caught in the end zone. (When does that ever work?)

I might have cheered a little too loudly for that since Dalton and Green are both on my fantasy team and that play single-handedly won me my game. I also drew death looks from all the Ravens fans around me. Oops.

But luckily the Ravens managed to win in overtime so everyone went home happy.

And on another good note, the Eagles won this weekend too, and Nick Foles threw three touchdown passes. Who is this guy? Other than the Terps sucking big time, it was a good sports weekend!

Did you do anything fun/sporty this weekend?

Since I'm really forcing myself to stick with running only three days per week, I've been trying to find some other workouts to throw in the mix on non-running days.

The other night we were having a cold snap here in DC and I didn't feel like leaving my apartment to go to the gym, so I dug through my stash of workout DVDs from back in the day and found my copy of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred.



Talk about a throw back.

I remember about four years ago when this DVD was allllll the rage in blogland. I swear every blogger I knew was doing it too, but then it sort of dropped off the face of the Earth and we all got distracted with other things.

For fun I decided to pop the DVD in and give it a go, and I immediately remembered why I liked the workouts so much.

First off they were short. Unlike my P90x experiment (which lasted a solid two weeks before I threw in the towel for so many reasons...more on that in a separate post), the 30 Day Shred workouts are only like 30 minutes so they're super easy to convince yourself to do, even if it's been a really long day. I mean who can't find the energy for a quick 30-minute workout.

Second, Jillian is not annoying on the DVD unlike some other workout people.

And third, I like the way the workout is broken up. It's three six-minute circuits broken up in Jillian's 3-2-1 format: three minutes of strength training, two minutes of cardio, one minute of core.

I imagine Jillian may be finding her way into my workout routine on my nonrunning days from time to time over the next few weeks.

Have you ever done the 30 Day Shred?

I know I'm a few days late to the party declaring my goals for the month, but I've been having a hard time figuring out what they should be.


Not planning to go sub-2 anytime soon

I mean how exactly are you supposed to set realistic, but still challenging goals, while you're still in recovery mode. I debated for a while if I should even be setting any goals at all, or if that would just set me up for overdoing it and put me at a bigger risk for reinjury.

I went back and forth on it for a while, but ultimately, I decided without some sort of goals, my workouts have no real meaning or purpose, which makes me much more likely to skip them. It's why I function so well when I'm training for races. With an end goal in mind, I'm way more motivated to get out the door and get my workouts in.



So when I was thinking about goals for November, I wanted to find something challenging enough that I have to work a bit to accomplish it, but not too much of a reach that I re-injure myself trying to get there.

And so this is what I decided on:

My goal for the month of November is to run for 360 minutes.

How did I get that number?

Well I started with what I wanted to do each week. My goal on a weekly basis is to average three 30-minute runs. Ideally no one run will be much longer or much shorter than 30 minutes, but if I'm feeling pain one day, I will stop my run early and make up the additional minutes on another run when things feel better.



In total, I should be running 90 minutes each week, and since there are 4 full weeks in November, that adds up to 360 minutes for the month.

Why is my goal in minutes and not miles?

As I'm coming back from injury, my times have been a lot slower than what I'm used to. If I focused on miles, it would take me a longer time to cover a set distance than I should be out running at this point. By focusing on running a certain number of minutes, I control the total amount of time I'm on my feet.

Plus, I'm hoping that by focusing on the minutes and not the miles, I will get less frustrated with how slow I am going. Right now I'm barely finishing three miles in 30 minutes. That's a lot slower than I used to be and so I'm hoping by eliminating any concern about the distances I'm running in November, I will avoid unnecessary frustration at my progress.

What are your goals for this month?

As much as I love nothing more than a weekend jam packed with Terps football and various other sporting events, over the years, I have come to love and appreciate the bye week.


Loving football Saturdays

The bye week usually symbolizes a weekend of blissful nothingness.

I don't have to set an early alarm to wake up for a tailgate. I can choose not to watch one bit of football all weekend if I really want to (ok that never actually happens, but it's a possibility...)

But I have all this extra time to get stuff done, and it's a great feeling.

This past weekend was actually our second bye week of the year, and boy did I make the best of it.

I got all my grocery shopping and errands done. I cleaned my apartment from top to bottom -- Lysoled the counters, mopped the floors, deep-cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed everything.

I backed up my computer and installed a new operating system.

I worked on my syllabus for the journalism class I'm teaching in the spring, and I started to organize some of the assignments.

Oh and I even managed to fit in a short run on Saturday -- 30 consecutive minutes of running. My longest run to date post injury. I'm happy to report I'm still not experiencing any pain in my foot when I run. But I can definitely tell my endurance is crap these days -- especially when I'm running up hills.



Saturday's route was a bit hilly and by the time I was finished I was sucking wind and had a pretty solid side stitch going on. But those are all things I can cope with for now. I'm just happy to be running.

Sunday I did spend some time watching the Eagles game -- my little bit of football for the weekend -- and I was pretty pumped with Nick Foles' performance. I'm just hoping it wasn't a one-time fluke. (In case you missed it, Foles tied the NFL record for passing touchdowns in a game. He threw 7 in our win over the Raiders.)

And before I stop prattling on today, I want to say a huge congratulations to the #IronSiblings -- Meghann, Kelly and Ben -- for rocking their first IronMan in Florida this weekend. Also congrats to everyone else who raced this weekend, especially everyone who rocked at the NY Marathon!

Did you have a productive weekend?