Injuries suck.

(Brace yourself for some whining. A lot of it. Yes, I would like some cheese with my whine.)

I have an owie :( It's a fairly minor owie in the grand scheme of things-pain in my right quad that might be coming from the quad muscle itself and might be coming from the bone, I don't know yet. Its not a severe pain, and doesn't make me limp or anything, but it's a nagging pain that I'd like to get nipped in the bud now, before I get further into my training program and closer to my race on April 24th. I had a lengthy talk with my sister, who's an athletic trainer, and she suggested some rest, stretching before and after runs, actually doing some strength training (which I haven't been), and making sure to ice after each run. This week was slated to be an easy mileage week, so taking a break from running isn't going to completely screw my training. Hopefully this stupid pain goes away soon, and I can get back to business :D

Speaking of training, Mother Nature needs to cut the crap. No.more.snow. I hate running on the treadmill with a passion, and dislike running on the track at the gym only slightly less. But running on slushly, yucky snow isn't exactly good for my balance and lord only knows I have a habit of falling and hurting myself while running.

In the meantime, I'm trying to be really good about doing my crosstraining and taking it easy. Eating healthy has been going a little better, but there's nothing like cold crappy weather to make you want to sit on your butt and eat all day. We've been talking about what kind of veggies and fruits we want to plant in our garden this spring/summer, which is strangely motivating. So far, we're thinking heirloom tomatoes (in those hanging planter things, if Jason gets his way), red peppers, cucumbers, butternut squash, potentially strawberries, and basil and cilantro in planters. Maybe a couple more, but we'll see. We're hoping to find a couple of good organic bugkillers and fertilizers if possible-we try to eat organic produce as often as possible but it's not exactly easy on the budget. If we could be successful at growing our own, that'd be awesome.

So those are the latest goings on in a nutshell...hopefully this pain decides to give it a rest and I can get back to training hard!

I'm a lazy blogger, aren't I?

Yeah, pretty much. We've gotten a fair amount of snow in Columbus over the last couple of weeks (of course, just as my half marathon training has started), which is really cramping my style. Lots of treadmill running (which I hate) and lots of hanging out at home, which equals snacking. Thanks to my friend Katie, though, I was able to get out for a snowy, slushy 7 mile long run on the streets around Katie's house today. We have a feeling we're both going to be sore tomorrow, but that's okay.

Speaking of sore, I've been having a twingy sort of pain in my right quad after I run. It's not really anything I notice while I'm running, and it doesn't keep me from running...it's just sore afterwards. So I'm keeping an eye on it for now, and hoping to sweet baby Jesus that it doesn't get worse. Other than that, training is going well. I've come to the realization that the paces my training program says I should hit during my speed and tempo work are just a liiiiiiiittle too fast, and once I sucked it up and slowed down by 15-20 sec/mile those runs have gotten a lot more productive. I have another 7 mile long run next Sunday, followed by a cutback week of 4 mile easy on Tuesday, 3 miles easy on Thursday, and another 4 miles easy on Sunday...but the Sunday run is getting pushed up to Saturday since I'm doing a spinning class fundraiser at a local gym for the Livestrong Foundation that Sunday. It's basically either a 2 hour spinning class or 4 hours-I'm doing one of the 2 hour blocks. My sister Alli and I have done this two years in a row, but Alli doesn't feel like being a glutton for punishment with me and that's okay :D

Really, not a lot else has been going on here. Yesterday, Georgie and I visited with Katie and her foster greyhound Roxie at their rescue's meet and greet at a local PetSmart yesterday, and had great fun meeting all the doggies. In addition to the greyhound rescue, there were a couple of other dog rescues plus a cat rescue...so that equaled lots of doggies for Georgie to meet. She was POOPED! Afterward, Katie and Roxie came over for a little while and Roxie napped while Georgie acted like a crazy girl...she crashed later though :D All in all, it's been a good couple of weeks. I just wish the snow would stop! I know we're in Ohio, but enough is enough damnit.