The entire month of July I was chained to my desk.  I tried to get the odd work out in here and there but it truly was just here and there. This makes for a very unhappy Gillian.  During this time I was unbearably miserable and miserable to the people around me. Not a good place to be.  I actually was a little concerned at how much of an impact it had on me.  I suppose if I ever am truly unable to run or exercise for that matter I would come up with another hobby.  This is why when I saw this post on facebook I had to share it as it resonated with what I was thinking:

A little update on my long list of injuries, despite my continued efforts to fix the plantar fasciitis it still is very much a daily pain.  I’ve been rolling, stretching and wearing my foot brace.  I have not been back to my ART guy just from lack of time in July but last week I started something new – Muscle Activation Technique.     Here is the link to what it is exactly : http://www.muscleactivation.com/  .  The procedure seems to work while I’m on the table. I notice huge differences when we test the strength in the muscles being worked on.  Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to carry over into actual running.  I’ve been a few times and have been doing the “homework” exercises so I will give it sometime.  It’s just, like everything, costly so when I don’t see results translate I get frustrated.  I continue to suffer from extremely tight glutes while running and pain in my heel.   The closer and closer it gets to the marathon date which is October 7^th the more my dream of PR’ing this year is unlikely.  Right now if I can actually run the entire marathon it will be a miracle.  I did run two races in July – the rock n’ roll Half Marathon and the Terrapin 5K in both cases I was finished at about 30-50 seconds slower than my PR pace. 

I finished the RNR half in 1:49:06 an 8:20 pace about 50 seconds off of my planned pace and 33/996 in my age group.  Granted, it was a stinking hot day, which is always hard to PR in. The lack of speed training and training overall really showed here.  However, I surprisingly felt better than I expected :).   My BG’s can be found here:    RNR half dexcom 72212      as you can see I got off to a bit of a rocky start mainly as a result of the timing of my bagel and the insulin kicking in then I forgot to bolus for the plethora of post-race snacks being handed out. Doh!     I finished the Terrapin 5k in 23:11 a 7:29/miles pace or about 30 seconds/mile off my PR.    Had I started closer to the front I may even have done a little better and I had a shoelace retie mid mile, totally forgot to double knot. My BG at the end of this one was dreadful at 391 L. I really only entered this race because I got to see our swim coach Trevor’s band was playing at the end of the race. The boyfriend also ran it so it was nice to do a race together and have some fun afterwards.  I was so proud of him, he managed to maintain a 10 minute mile which was great!

I’ve also been getting in some 80+ mile rides in an “attempt” to train for the Oregon race (see race schedule) .   I don’t have any set goals for the race but I also don’t want to fall flat on my face! I have been enjoying these rides because they are not part of a training plan and I have no time goals, its just riding for the sake of enjoying riding my bike.  I’m mostly worried about the 3 mile swim.  I’ve been getting in some decent 1-2 mile lake swims but I’ll need to do at least two 3 milers in the next few weeks to feel comfortable with that distance.

Next up on the race schedule is a half ironman this Sunday.  Not expecting a PR here either given the injuries.  I will look to improve my swim time and will ride the hell out of the bike though! The weather is suppose to be nice and cool it should be a great day! You can track me here:http://ironman.com/events/ironman70.3/steelhead70.3?show=tracker#axzz23evEc5Ie

In other exciting news I have officially signed up for my first cyclocross race!!! Its on August 26, 2012 and I am doing it as a relay with my friend April.  I know nothing about it except that its on dirt, you have to get on and off your bike and carry it over barriers and/or sand etc.  Should be a cake walk right?  Right? See video here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRZOa_E9Qs8  Oh and they also toss beer at you/to you while you are riding.  This could also mean a new bike is in my future :). Stay tuned!