Category: Uncategorized

The last run I blogged about was a two-miler a week ago, but I didn’t comment on the pain in my right knee that I felt at the end and that lingered through the following day.

I decided to take a day off from running to be safe. That, of course, turned into five days… and then I got a strange 24-hour cold over the weekend… and finally, today, I felt totally back to normal and ready to run.

No pain!

Today, my chiropractor said the knee pain could have been caused by my hips being out of alignment. Good to know.

I also decided to stop being lazy and created an actual training plan for the comeback 5K I’m running in just under four weeks.

My main goal for the 5K is to pace myself well and be able to run the whole 3.1 miles, and my secondary goal is to break 30 minutes. At my current fitness level, I won’t be running sub-30, but we’ll see what happens with consistent speed work, tempos and weight lifting!

Obviously you don’t need to lift weights as part of 5K training, but I really think it added a lot to my marathon training, and I miss looking and feeling strong.

Side note: I documented my marathon training with detailed weekly recaps and a reflection on my overall training after I nailed my 4:15 goal; you can find all those posts HERE if you’re interested!

On top of wanting to have a great race next month, I’m also excited to dive into this training plan because I’d still like to have my 10-pounds-lighter body back and I’ve so far failed at committing to regular exercise. I know from experience that nothing motivates me like an upcoming race!

I’m newly back on the Paleo bandwagon as well. I saw and felt great results after my month of Paleo eating in June, but I just flat-out failed to maintain good eating habits. I’ve got this to motivate me on that front:

Oh, yes. You are looking at just over two weeks in Italy starting at the end of September.

We’ll be visiting Milan, Rapallo, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence, Siena, Orvieto, Rome, Naples and the Amalfi Coast. Aaron wins for planning our itinerary in excellent detail! (I’m sick of travel planning.)

Make no mistake — we will not be eating Paleo in Italy! I plan to indulge in everything Italy has to offer, but I want to make my best effort to shed a little extra weight beforehand. I may just put it right back on, thanks to pasta, pizza and gelato, but I’ll give it a shot anyway.

Yummm… pizza, pasta, gelato… I’m sorry I even mentioned them!

Fitness is a lot like money — it takes a long time to build up a good amount, and a fraction of that time to lose it.

Every bit of it must be re-earned.

I thought about this as I slogged uphill tonight in my mom’s neighborhood.

I kept thinking about how I used to be able to run five times as far with what felt like a fraction of the effort. Hills like the ones I ran up tonight were no big deal. I had this weird, self-righteous thought that since I used to be so fit, I deserve to be that way again.

And I do. Everyone deserves to be healthy. But I don’t deserve to have it handed to me. I need to work for it, just like I did the first time around.

When it comes to rebuilding fitness, you get out of it what you put in. Sweat. Miles. Healthy choices. I need some more of all of ‘em.

I’ve got about a month left before my first post-injury 5K. Here’s to earning it!

Does anyone else have the need to feel that your running shoes are tied just tightly as each other before you can run?

Sometimes I get it right the first time and don’t think twice; other times, like this morning, I start running and have to stop a few times to re-tie my shoes until they feel just right.

I’ve been known to tie and re-tie my shoes about a million times before races. Really, really weird.

I tried to keep my pace at about 10:00 min/mi this morning, since that’s how fast I can run without feeling like I’m going too slowly or like I’m going to die.

My problem is that I want to go faster, but my endurance isn’t there yet and I get burned out. I’m happy with how I was able to keep a fairly even pace on this run. : )

I returned to Aaron’s place to find him snuggled up in head-to-toe lululemon man-sweats and catching up on Breaking Bad.

I’m desperate to rebuild my upper-body strength, so I took advantage of his sweet Bowflex dumbbells, which allow you to adjust the weight of each dumbbell by turning a dial. They go up to 90 pounds each!

I only use the 10-, 15- and 20-pound settings.

Looks like I’m using a pair of Shake Weights. Ha!

During marathon training last fall, I was really good about lifting weights 2-3 times a week at the gym and really felt/saw progress in my arm muscles.

I’m excited to get into a lifting routine again, and now I don’t even have to go to the gym. Woo-hoo!

…when you’ve been putting off running and just dread it for no particular reason?

And then as soon as you take that first step, you realize, “Ahh, yes, this is great! Why was I putting this off?”

Yeah. Me. Today.

It’s been very hot by Seattle standards (mid 90s) these past few days and I just couldn’t wake myself up in time to run early in the morning. Today is mercifully cloudy and cool, but I still wore myself out and got very sweaty with just a 2.5-mile run!

I passed out in front of a high-powered fan. Delight.

Thank you to everyone who has “liked” Aaron’s contest entry on Facebook so far! He is just slightly behind another finalist with 471 “likes” to the other guy’s 478!

I don’t know what kind of dark magic the other guy is working, but I don’t like this race being so close — it would stink if Aaron lost by just a few votes. If you can spare a few seconds, please lend your Facebook “likes”

HERE

AND HERE (Finalist #3 — Aaron Pass) EDIT: Contest is now closed.

Both “likes” count toward the total!

We really ‘preciate it. And very soon we’re going to a BBQ and we can stop obsessively refreshing those Facebook pages.

And I will get to hold Aaron’s baby nephew. I’m a little obsessed with babies lately, so I will probably die of happiness.

Thanks to everyone who clicked “like” on Aaron’s entry to a Facebook contest by Enve Composites, he is a top-three finalist to WIN the grand prize of a trip to the UK for a professional bike fitting!

The top three entrants were so close that Enve Composites decided to pit them against each other once again to determine the final winner.

If you need no more convincing to help him win, there are TWO places you can click “like” — they’ll both count for the final total:

HERE

AND HERE (Finalist #3 — Aaron Pass) EDIT: Contest is now closed.

You can vote all the way through Sunday, August 19.

Aaron should be in Iceland right now, taking a cycling tour of the beautiful country, but instead he’s being a huge trooper and recovering from painful shoulder surgery.

I can’t even tell you how devastated he was (and still is) to miss that trip. It would mean the world him to win this one.

I can’t help him be in less pain right now, or go back in time and save him from getting hurt, but I can help him win… and I want him to win BIG!

My goal is to help him get 1,000 “likes.” The top 3 entrants got about 150 “likes” each in the initial round. I want to blow that out of the water!

Here’s a video of his entry story, showing his recovery from near-death after his motorcycle was hit by a car and all the amazing things he’s done since then:

For Aaron from Devon Mills on Vimeo.

I belong to quite a few social networks, but I believe in Tumblr the most when it comes to a community willing to rally around someone.

If his story touches you, please don’t hesitate to “like” his contest entry (HERE and HERE — Finalist #3 EDIT: Contest is now closed), reblog this post/video, tweet about it and/or share his Facebook entry on your own page.

Anything helps. Thank you in advance.

1,000 “likes.” I think we can do it!!!