playing catchup

Okay, so long time, no blog. Or little blog, I guess. There has been very little news on the running front, but I suppose there *has* been news, so here it is...

My right leg has been bothering me for weeks. The hip was the first to hurt, and then a pain in my right quad that, while not really intense, just wouldn't go away. I finally went to see my doctor about it (stop nagging!), but she told me what I expected -- it's a deep muscle strain, and that all that can be done is to rest it. She also knew that, at 45 days from race day, I wasn't really going to rest it, so she told me that I wouldn't do permanent injury to myself if I just kept running on it -- it would just hurt more. So I've been given the thumbs up to take stupid amounts of Advil for the next couple of weeks to encourage the muscle to heal itself. So far, so good.

Wil and I went for a run today, our first run together -- and my first run, period -- since last weekend. We ran an easy six miles down to Golden Gardens, huffing and puffing up the stairs to 85th, and then home. As Wil pointed out, it's not difficult to run these shorter distances, which leads to boredom. I guess that's why a lot of people decide to focus on speed or time, rather than just getting the mileage in. Who knows.

At the end of our run last week my iPod informed me that my Nike+ sensor had a low battery. Since I had this week off work, I decided to finally use my birthday gift certificate from Super Jock n Jill and buy a new sensor and some other running goodies. I didn't need new shoes, gear, etc., but picked up a couple of Christmas gifts for friends along with the sensor. However, when I got home and tried to link the sensor, I just kept getting a low battery message, and when I tested it, it wouldn't register any motion. Boo. But we did go back on Friday, pick up some new shoes for Wil to use up the rest of the gift certificate, and swap the sensor, no questions asked. While Wil was finishing the purchase, I put the new sensor in my shoe and went for a walk to test it -- I was relieved to find that this one worked. Hooray!

The nicest running news is that I met my "Girls on the Run" running buddy on the 17th at our practice 5K. I was really nervous beforehand -- would I like her? Would she like me? Would I be able to keep up with her? Because my original buddy had left the program, I had been transferred to a different school and a girl whose buddy had dropped out. My new buddy is Morgan, a very bright 4th grader who loves kittens and reading. She actually goes to a different school, so she's often late to the program -- she needs to get from her school in Wedgwood across town to Ballard -- which makes me wonder if she gets enough time with the other girls. I was also told that Morgan isn't a big fan of running -- but she loves to walk fast and to skip.

Morgan arrived late for the practice 5K, which meant we were behind from the beginning. But we set off at a good clip -- she is a VERY fast walker! The route was 4 loops around the neighborhood -- the idea being that if something happened, we didn't want the girls to be over a mile from the school. So we walked -- and skipped -- around the loop four times. The whole time we talked about books and pets and how excited she was about Christmas. I hope she gets the kittens she wants. Even nicer was the card she sent me a few days later, telling me she had a "super great time" on our practice 5K. Awwww. I'm looking forward to our GOTR 5K in a couple of weeks -- even if I have to wear a too-small orange t-shirt....

So that gets me caught up with the running news... oh, except that Wil ran partway home from work on Tuesday, which is very cool. I might have to sort out some way to run partway home myself.