No one wants to move during the pandemic, but we had no choice.
To be honest, moving during Coronavirus is a daunting task. Moving across the country is scary but moving during Covid-19 makes you question everything you do. You want to see friends and family members before you go but also want to be safe. You also have a moving company packing and unpacking all of your stuff. The thought of other people touching every single object right now I owned was scary!
If you follow me on social media, you know a few snafus happened during our move pack up:
The Car Shipping company lost our keys (and every car key on the truck). We had to overnight our dinky key and need to get new keys remade.
The movers and the van driver got into a large fight which ended up in our movers walking out mid pack. (And yes the military hired a “full service professional moving company”. Had we known all of this would happen we would have moved ourselves. My husband and I had to help pack the van (the moving services repacked it elsewhere).
My cat disappeared and was ultimately found in the ceiling of our basement. When you think your cat is missing on moving day, you go as far as to use the “NextDoor App” and offer a 1000 reward to anyone who finds him.
After all of the craziness, we were finally able to begin our cross country move during the pandemic.
When contemplating the options to move across the country (drive or fly), we settled on driving. Why? It seemed like more fun, but also I’m not entirely sure my comfort level on a commercial airplane during the Covid-19 outbreak. I knew in the car we could control who we saw and who we came into contact with.
Tim and I’s travel style is very low key. We didn’t have checkpoints or places we needed to be by a certain date and planned it as we went. I would call hotels while we were driving and see what was available for the day. Based on the 10-11 day travel span, we knew we needed to get between 300-400 miles (5-6 hours of driving). We wanted to spend a day out west somewhere; we didn’t know where either.
This week, my “on this day app” showed me nine years ago, I had my official diagnosis of a tibia stress fracture. I got the fracture several weeks earlier but had no idea, and it was misdiagnosed as tendinitis. I limped for several weeks until finally having an answer.
July went by fast. Does anyone else feel like they say that every month?
For the most part, training went well. I’m slowly increasing mileage and building a base. There were many days that tested me to get out the door (or on the treadmill) between weather but I only skipped a couple of runs or moved workouts to better days.
Miles Run: About 215 Range of Paces: 6:07-11:30-untimed Shortest Run: 2 miles Longest Run: 20 miles Rest Days: 3 Swimming Days: 7
It feels like the summer is just moving right along. July brought some fun races, but nothing I was overly proud of. The Firecracker 5k early in the month would be my fastest 5k.
It was fun to do the Allen Stone Run Swim Run again. While it wasn’t my highest placement, I’m proud of how I raced, and I slowly picked people off. After the first 1k on the beach, I was 55th, then 22nd after the swim, then 10th overall and no one passed me on the 5k run.
One of the highlights of July was doing the “Run for Toilets“, a 5k that benefited the local Elks lodge to fundraise for new bathrooms. I got to break a tape made out of toilet paper!
I late July, I was able to get my first 20 miler in. Summer has humbled me that running 20 miles is never easy, but it’s even more challenging when it’s above 85 degrees.
I question myself regularly about my marathon and marathon goals. I haven’t run anything that I’m substantially happy with since NYCM last year. That isn’t to say I don’t enjoy running, but training cycles haven’t come together. August will be my highest mileage and peak month of training. I’m looking forward to the challenge.
Finally, have you subscribed to the LOLZletter? It’s a free newsletter that comes out each Monday. In the newsletter, I share running industry trends and things relevant to the sport. This week is all about running on the treadmill.
Questions for you: How was your month of training? What has been your best race of 2019?
For some reason, I always imagined at age 29; I would look and feel older.
Maybe like an adult? It hasn’t come (yet). Anyway, looking back at age 28, I had a great year. I’ve been an “adult” for a decade now.
What Did I Do During Year 28?
Last year, I started age 28 with my first “real” trail race. I ran the Copper Mountain 25k, and it was one of the best running memories I’ve had.
It’s hard to believe that was a year ago now!
Last summer, I did a lot of traveling up and down the East Coast. We visited family, I saw friends from college, and I just had a good summer. In August, I ran/hikes my second trail race in Killington, VT. To me, it was more challenging than the race in Colorado because the terrain was much more technical. Then in the fall, I changed gears entirely and trained for the NYCM. I didn’t think I would do another marathon, but when the opportunity to run in the “sub-elite” corral presented itself, I couldn’t say no. I’m glad I did, and it was one of the best running experiences I’ve had.
Since the NYCM, running hasn’t quite come into place. I’ve trained, but I haven’t had any “spectacular” or amazing races. I’ve had a lot of great and fun races, but I’m well off PRs. Right now, I’m content with that.
In January, my husband and took a trip out to California. We drove from San Diego to San Francisco and just explored. We had no agenda (as most of our vacations are).
The highlight of the Spring was adopting my two cats: Frick and Frack. I always had cats growing up, and I’ve wanted them for years, but our landlords or landladies always said no.
Finally, after proving we were good renters, they agreed. We found these two cats at the local shelter, and when I found out they had been there for five years (YES 5), I knew I wanted them. They were shy at first but have come out of their shell.
The last few months have been quiet as far as personal and running life goes. I’m training for the Big Cottonwood Marathon in early September. Running another downhill marathon terrifies me because the last one wasn’t my favorite race ever — cheers to doing things outside of your comfort zone.
Fulfilling my other hobby, I also went to over 50 New Jersey diners last year and have now been to 253. I don’t know if I’ll make it to 300 (if we move). When I started this journey 5 years ago, I never imagined going to 250 diners. But as they motivational quotes say: you never know until you try!
Anyway, thank you age 28 for the memories and to family and friends for supporting me!
This year, I wanted to do something and different for my birthday, so on July 20th, I’m running the Teterboro 5k to Homes for Our Heroes: a mission to build safe, affordable housing for military and military families.
This includes Veterans who have nowhere to live as well as military families in the NJ area.
I appreciate anyone willing to donate and support this cause with me.
My goal is to reach $500 and any amount matters. Here is the link if you are interested.
One of the most requested posts is about my history with injuries.
I haven’t always stayed injury free, and I have several injuries throughout the years. Before recently, my blog could have alternative names such as fueledbyInjuries or InjuriesNlolz.
Many of my injuries were because I overtrained or ran easy runs too fast.
Over time, I’ve learned that you can’t outrun an injury. Life doesn’t work like that. If you are worried, rest. Resting a few days often saves you from resting a few weeks, months, or even years. You don’t gain fitness in a day and you definitely don’t lose it either.
When I first started running in 2010, I had many years of haphazard running. It took a lot of trial and error and learning from experience to determine what works best for me. As with anything, I learn best when I do something and make mistakes along the way.
You can read my full running story here (or in one of the headings above).
In summary, I began running in July 2010. I ran off and on and was still a member of on my collegiate swim team. Swim season lasted from September until late February, so there was no running during that time. During the off-season, we were allowed to work out as we pleased, so eventually, I picked up running.
Here is my History with Injuries:
My first serious running injury:
Tibial Stress Fracture (July 2011-September 2011)
How it happened:
I ran every day for an hour on the treadmill. I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to train fast every single day. I thought to race faster you must train faster. So every day I made the goal to beat the previous day’s mileage for 1 hour. I never ran for more than an hour, but I ran seven days a week. I was running between 7-7:15 pace for an hour.
Ultimately I was far more exhausted from running 50 miles then I am now. My body broke at a road race on my 21st birthday. Midway through a run-swim-run race, my body broke, My tibia fractured and I was done.
I learned more about myself than any other injury. To be honest, I needed that injury to realize that training was idiotic and not right. My tibial stress fracture shaped my training to include a lot more easy miles. I don’t time my easy runs anymore, and I don’t GAF whether the pace is 10 minutes or 8 minutes.
Happy 21st birthday to me with my non detected tibia SF
Cyst: August 2012-October 2012:
How it happened:
During September 2012, I developed a cyst in the arch of my foot. The doctors still don’t know exactly how it formed it could have developed anywhere in my body (I’m so thankful it wasn’t my brain).
They don’t believe it was running related, but it prevented me from running. I was able to run with minimal pain until the cyst became large enough to rip the muscle from my bone. After tearing the muscle off my metatarsal, it halted running completely.
After recovering for two months and a shot to reduce the swelling, I came back and ran my fastest college cross country race.
Fractured Elbow (August 2013):
How it happened:
While cooling down at a road race in August 2013, I was hit by a cyclist. I was knocked to the ground, and it fractured my elbow. I was devastated, but after a week, I was able to run slowly.
I decreased mileage, but it ended up being the most nonserious elbow fracture I could have. At the time, the decline in mileage was terrifying because I was training for my first marathon, NYCM.
It taught me; you have to roll with the punches. A few days of rest does not impact fitness.
When I got my sling off
Second Metatarsal Fracture (August 2014)
How it happened:
Fast forward to moving to Texas and then New Jersey. In August of 2014, I got a second metatarsal fracture. In hindsight, I believe I upped my mileage too quickly. Even though I was running easy, I think my mileage went up too fast. At the time, I was training for my second marathon, Wineglass. I healed by race day, but it would have been dumb to run a marathon on a newly recovered stress fracture. To be honest, I don’t think my heart was ready to race another marathon, and it was a good out.
I chose this photo because I think I ran a hard track mile and then the next day ran a 20 miler for the marathon. #dumb
Bum Butt (February 2015-March 2015)
How it happened:
I tweaked something running my second marathon and kept running. Around mile 18, my butt started to throb. By the end of the marathon, my whole left side was in pain. Should I have finished the race? Probably not…Did I PR? Yes…
I didn’t heal as fast as I should have because I continued to run after the marathon. I took two weeks off (which helped) but then I ran too hard too fast. Looking back, I made good progress and then threw it all away running again. This is something I’m 100% kicking myself for…even though I had an excellent time at Shamrock 2015. If I had taken a month off, I wouldn’t have had two months to deal with the issues.
Ankle Fracture June 2016:
How it Happened:
This was the only injury I’m not entirely sure what I did. Did I tweak my ankle running on trails? Did I run too much? I don’t know. In June of 2016, something felt off. I couldn’t pinpoint it, and it almost felt like plantar fasciitis on the outside of my foot. An X-ray confirmed I had a minor fracture. The fracture healed with time off but it worried something else was not right. Test results found my calcium, vitamin D, and blood levels were fine.
One thing my ankle fracture taught me was I liked hiking. After healing, I spent a good portion of the summer hiking and enjoying the outdoors that way.
There are many times I look back at my training and think: If I had taken a few more days off, or if I had realized that ache was a minor bone pain….but each is a lesson to move on. I have learned that running in pain isn’t worth it to me.
You cannot outrun injury, and it will catch up to you.
I tell any runner, new or old; there is no shame in rest and easy days. I am to the point in life and running that it will never be my sole purpose in life. Resting and staying healthy is more important to me than running every day.
Question for you: Have you had a running injury before?
