PF

Betcha thought that PF stood for plantar fasciitis, didn't ya? WRONG! PF = Pain Free baby! I ran this morning. Three whole miles and guess what? PAIN FREE! So happy! I was kind of falling into a funk worrying that things weren't going to get back to normal - but I'm feeling optimistic now. Yippee! (This pic is from last year's hood to coast, but the smile adequately reflects how I was feeling this morning!).

I'm going to Tahoe tomorrow with these two monkeys:

and this babe:

We rented a house with some friends and it should be a great time. I am so excited for the vacay and also to get a few runs in with my friends. Hope everyone has a good week - and I hope when I get back I can report that the pain free running trend has continued!

Memories of a long run - the Banks to Vernonia Trail

Since I'm laid up with Plantar Fasciitis and can't run on an actual road (the pool has got nothing on me though) - I was reminiscing about some of the long runs I took in marathon training. I think my favorite long run was on the Banks to Vernonia path. As I mentioned in my previous post, M and I are always on the lookout for new places to run. So we met somes friends and Clark (the wonder dog) to run the paved path from the town of Banks to Vernonia. One of our friends has run and biked the trail previously and knew that we could get 22 miles in if we went all the way to Vernonia lake, so that was the plan. We met at the Banks trailhead at 7am and left a car there. Since we were doing a point to point run, our friend Heather's husband drove her car to the end point and biked back home from there. The trail is completely paved and has restrooms along the way. The only thing missing? Water. Luckily, we had Clark! Heather's dog carried our water, gu's and everything we needed on the run. It was pretty awesome. This trail is really beautiful!


After the first few miles, the trail starts a long uphill for the about 10 miles. It's pretty gradual, but definitely uphill. We all stayed together until about Mile 6, and then we kind of split up according to pace. Clark pretty much ran ahead of us the whole time. Heather really should put a garmin on Clark sometime to see how far he actually runs with going ahead and coming back - it's pretty impressive. We started fairly slow, in the low 10's - but by the end we were clipping along pretty consistantly in the mid-9's. I felt pretty good and strong and really just enjoyed the scenery and the company. At Mile twelve you go down a steep hill and then climb up another one, but after that the trail goes flat or slightly downhill until the end.
I have to admit I was glad to stop the uphill. We crossed a bunch of bridges and two trestles. We also saw some wildlife! One deer, a snake and M saw a lizard. We left pretty early and the trail wasn't crowded at all, which was nice.

The trail ends in Vernonia at a park, but we continued on past the park and ran to the lake to get the extra mileage we we wanted to get. The lake was very pretty, although we didn't get a chance to look around very long (we were DONE!).




After our run we went into Vernonia and got coffee/sandwiches at Black Bear Coffee shop, which really hit the spot. This is a beautiful path to run on and I definitely recommend anyone who needs to get a long run in try it out. I will see if Clark is available to carry your water. Hopefully I'll get this PF injury cleared up soon and I will be out there running in these beautiful spots again!

I went and did some pool running this morning - it wasn't too bad! I'll post more on that later!

Plantar F#*@#$*itis

So - I'm pretty sure I have plantar fasciitis. I've felt it since I ran the marathon on June 20th and I have only run 3 times since then - all with pain in my heel. I'm pretty stubborn, and usually ignore aches and pains, but when your foot hurts every time you run you've got to pay attention. Feet are kind of critical to the entire process.

I' ve never had this before, and so I've been doing extensive research (googling)to figure out how to get it under control. On the advice of my physician (ok, not really, he's just my friend Matt who is a doctor and a runner who I called and he talked me down from freaking out and agreed with me that it sounds like Plantar Fasciitis) I am taking ibuprofen 3x daily, icing, rolling my foot and (gulp) NOT RUNNING. I've got two races coming up - one is the Lacamas Lake Half Marathon and the other one is this little race you might have heard of called Hood to Coast.

LaCamas Lake was just a race I signed up for to stay motivated post marathon and to be ready for Hood to Coast - so I will not be devestated if I can't run it. My husband is running, but we don't run together anyway, so it's not like he'll miss me and my charming personality. Hood to Coast though is one of my favorite things in the world. The goal is to get this fixed and ready for this race. So, to make sure I don't completely lose my fitness while I'm recovering I'm looking at...pool running. Hello SUAR, I'm about to feel your pain.

Yesterday I called around to pools to find out where I could go to do pool running. I found one right by my sister's house which is great because she will watch my kiddos while I get in the pool and run to....the exact same place in the pool. I have a great attitude about this - clearly it's going to be awesome.

Oh my god this is hard! I don't know what to do with myself without running! I will also keep up with yoga and I'm a pretty big devotee of Jillian Michael's DVD's because they are hard and keep you moving, so I'll probably be doing more of those as well. I tried one out yesterday (and oh yeah, feeling sore today in a good way!) so I'll be doing those more regularly as well.

So - this is my sob story. I need to try to maintain a good attitude through this and remind myself that it's going to be worth it to be able to run Hood to Coast pain free.