Playing Catch-up

Long time, no blog. This doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about blogging, I have just been feeling a little ashamed about the way some things have been going recently. The Reno area has been plagued by smoke from wildfires namely the Rim Fire and previously the American Fire for the past month. Most days the air quality has been so bad it was recommended not to go outside, let alone go running outside. And many who know me know that I would rather go deep sea diving in shark infested waters than run on a treadmill. I was worried about the Reno 10 Miler going on during the first week of the American Fire, I even made the decision that if the air quality didn't improve I wouldn't be running the race, which would have been a huge disappointment because I was planning on using this race as a measure of my running fitness and how to pace myself for my half marathon in October. The running gods saw to it that the race should go on. The day of the race, the air quality was deemed "healthy". When I got to the race, I met up with some co-workers who were also running and Karla who offered to pace me. We took the obligatory pre-race picture.

Karla, Katherine, Me, and Logan

The race started right on time (which I love) and it started off great. The first 2.5 miles where uphill, so I thought I would run that part conservatively. My knee really started hurting about 2 miles in. I thought it was just the uphill, so I decided to walk (just for a little bit) until I hit the downhill portion, and it just got worse. Karla cautioned me that I should just take the dreaded DNF instead of making things worse. She told me I might regret stopping now, but not as much as I would regret it later if I kept running. I did decide to stop. Since that race, my knee has been constantly hurting. I am pretty sure it is related to my IT Band, because I seem to possess every symptom.

The week of the race, I ran 26 miles. That was my biggest mileage since then. Because of all the smoke I have been forced to stay indoors. I have tied to substitute running with spinning classes and swimming. For a few days this week, we have had relatively low smoke days, so I have ventured out and ran. I feel like I have lost a lot of my running fitness already. Things are a lot harder than they used to be. :( I have also made the executive decision to not run in the Urban Cow Half Marathon this year. I am incredibly bummed about this. I feel like I have been working so hard to train for this even, but because of the smoke i have missed 4 of my long runs, and I just don't think I will be prepared enough to race. I know I could still finish, but I wanted to finish with a good time.

In the meantime, I have found a new love of swimming. It is very relaxing.

 I took a swimming class my last semester of college and I found it fun and challenging. During that time, I couldn't do more than one lap (2 lengths of the pool of 50m) without stopping, but I have found now that I can do 3 laps (6 lengths or 150m) before I need to take a quick break. Ok, so I'm no Michael Phelps, but that is pretty cool progress. I think I can attribute it to all the running I was doing. Now if only I could find the same love of cycling then I would probably love triathlons, but alas, me and biking are not really on the best of terms. I almost think I would rather run on a treadmill than go on a bike ride. What I'm trying to say is:

Except for this one, because it's just awesome!