Saving my sneakers!

This is going to seem pretty pathetic, but it is true: I have some running shoes that I bought, thought were great, and then found they hurt my feet so they were relegated to the back of the closet. Where they sat, unworn, while my other running shoes racked up the (too many) miles.

I know, I know . . . I should have returned the shoes but by the time I got around to giving the shoes a proper test, and then making the decision that they did, truly, hurt my feet, it was too late for returns. So, in the closet they sat.

Until recently. I was sent a few pairs of Lock Laces(TM) to try out.

If you aren't familiar with these, Lock Laces are (according to their web site) "the only patented performance lacing system engineered to meet the demands of athletes like runners, triathletes, marathoners, and walkers . . . wearing Lock Laces sustains compression across the foot increasing the amount of oxygen available to the muscles, which helps endurance athletes manage fatigue."

What I found is this: Lock Laces saved my sneakers.

Those running shoes, sitting in the back of my closet? Well, one day I pulled them out. I decided to give Lock Laces a tough trial and use them in shoes that had always hurt.

I swapped out the laces and adjusted the new Lock Laces until the shoes felt (relatively) comfortable. This involved loosening the front part, up by my toes, to give some extra room where I have a bunion.

It worked. Now, I had tried this idea with traditional laces and I could never get it right. If the front part was loose, the rest of the lacing had to either be way too tight in order to compensate or would also be loose. Too loose.

So, it never worked. The elasticity of the Lock Laces allows more customization. It is great for runners like me! I can compensate for my bunion but still wear my shoes tight enough so they don't slip in the heel area.

Win!

And, check out how fun and funky they look:

These running shoes are no longer collecting dust in the back of closet. I can actually run in them!

I've also changed my son's sneakers over to Lock Laces and it makes getting ready in the morning a little quicker -- and, really, even if it adds 30 seconds to my day, I'll take it!

As for my shoes, it makes putting them on and taking them off quicker, certainly, since there is no tying involved. But, for me, the way they help customize the fit of my shoes is the real benefit. I'm sold!

You can learn more about Lock laces on their web site. The laces sell for $7.99 or 3 for $19.99.

Have you tried Lock Laces? Do you like them?

Have a great day, everyone!

Recovery mistakes.

Yeah, I've made a few.

When I was first injured, I rested. Classic RICE. I also used the foam roller, massaged my hip with a tennis ball, popped Advil and, I admit, did some lower body exercises. For two weeks, that's what I did and for two weeks, my hip didn't get any better.

Then, I met with my doctor, got the results of my MRI and learned that I was, inadvertently, making my injury worse.

Sure, I wasn't running. But the foam rolling and tennis ball massaging were hurting my poor torn muscles. While those two actions are great treatments for tight muscles, they aren't good for torn muscles. They are, according to my doctor, bad. B.A.D. Bad.

And, the Advil. Yeah, also B.A.D. Bad. I thought that since Advil is an anti-inflammatory pain reliever, it would be a good thing to take. Wrong. Since part of my problem is the hematoma, I need to avoid anything that will thin my blood, which is what ibuprofen does. So, for the same reason you aren't supposed to take ibuprofen before surgery, I shouldn't be taking it now. At least, according to my doctor.

Then there is the issue of the lower body exercise. Well, what can I say? I wasn't running! I thought that was good enough but it turns out it wasn't. No more squats and what-nots for me. For the next few weeks, that is.

As of Tuesday, I've been full-on resting as prescribed. And you know what? My hip is starting to feel better! It is probably mostly mental at this point but, I swear, it doesn't feel nearly as bad as it did a week ago. Hooray for progress!

And hooray for learning from my mistakes and no longer making them.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Happy runner, interrupted.

I met with my doctor today to go over my MRI. 

The good news: No fracture. 

The bad news: Two tears and hematoma. 

My gluteus minimus and tensor fascia latae are torn. The hematoma is just from the internal bleeding (from those tears). The doctor said he could aspirate the hematoma but recommended letting it resolve on its own. Otherwise, the treatment is just rest.

Rest for 4 more weeks. As in, no running. No. Running. For. Four. More. Weeks.

I'm to ice the area and rest. Avoid stairs and hills. If I don't have pain, I can walk (wooo!) and I can try out biking, if I'm so inclined. Honestly, I'm not all that inclined given that a) I don't own a bike and b) I'm about as spastic a bike rider as they get.

But, I might be tempted after another week or two of inactivity. We'll see. 

In the meantime, I'll do my best not to mope.

Yup.

If this blog gets too mopey, feel free to give me a virtual kick in the shin. What can it hurt? I can't run anyway.

Wah, wah.

Impatience is not a virtue.

I have been very good about resting my lame hip for the past 2+ weeks. Very good.

So on Sunday, when I went out for a walk, I thought I might live life on the edge just a little and run a few steps. To try out the hip. See if the rest is doing anything at all.

Apparently, my impatience was a bad idea.

After about a half mile walk, I ran maybe 5 steps. That's it. Five lousy steps. The pain was quick, searing and unbearable. I had to stop immediately and limp home.

Crushed.

It was not a good idea. I know this -- in hindsight. At the time, though, it didn't seem like such a bad idea. In fact, it seemed totally fine. Go for a walk. Run just a little bit to test things out. Walk as necessary.

I go back to the doctor tomorrow. Obviously, I'll be resting until then when he'll tell me . . . what? To be patient? Probably. He'll probably tell me to be patient. To rest. Let it heal.

Yeah. I'll get back to work on that patience thing! 

Have a good week, everyone -- 

Rest, rest, and more rest.

Day 13 of no running. Boo! Hiss!

My hip still feels off. It is still swollen. I've been to the doctor and had x-rays and an MRI. On Tuesday, I go back and, until then, I'm not supposed to run. At that point, I will have been resting for over two weeks.

Gah!

I keep telling myself that this time off is important. Obviously, since I'm injured, I can't run. But more than that, this time off is giving the un-injured parts of my body a rest as well. It has also been a chance for me to do some more concentrated cross-training. I'm a little limited in what I can do, so I've been focusing on weight workouts that don't stress my hip. Strong upper body, here I come!

I believe -- I have to believe -- that this forced rest is positive. After my hip heals and I return to running, I'll be back feeling stronger and refreshed from the rest. As I think back over the past few years, I see that I've basically been training with little-to-no-rest since two weeks after my son was born, two-and-a-half years ago.

Sure, I've had weeks of reduced running but I haven't truly taken a running break. An injury was bound to happen, I suppose.

So, here I am now. Injured. But looking at it as forced rest. A necessary evil.

It had better yield good results!

Have a good weekend, everyone. Thanks for reading.

Who needs a ride? (giveaway winner!)

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway for a copy of Jennifer Graham's book, Honey Do You Need a Ride?

I used random.org to pick the winner from the eligible entries and the winner is . . .



Amy Glass



Congratulations, Amy! Send me an email at felicehalf [at] yahoo [dot] com with your address and I'll get your copy of the book right out to you!

Enjoy the day, everyone!

The crazy runner.

So, here we are. Day 10 of no running. Ten days. No running.

Ten. Days. Of. No. Running.

Ten days of thinking non-stop about my ridiculous hip injury and how it means no running for the foreseeable future. 

In other words, ten days of me going crazy.

Yes, I admit it. I've gone straight-up crazy. Straight-up injured-runner crazy, that is. And injured-runner crazy is a very, well, special, kind of crazy.

Truth.

Injured-runner crazy makes one hyper-aware of all the glorious running that one is missing. And in that hyper-awareness is the knowledge that the rest of the world is still out there, running.

And, believe me. Everyone is running. 

Really. They are. Everyone, everywhere. Even non-runners are running. Couch potatoes are halfway to 5K and over-the-moon happy about it. Everyone is running. And injured-runner craziness tells me that they are not just running, but they are having the Best. Freaking. Times. Of. Their. Lives. They are practically frolicking. 

Everyone is running frolicking-good runs.

And long. Oh, those runners are out there running for miles and miles and miles. With glee. Glee! Everyone, everywhere is running the Longest. Runs. Of. Their. Lives. With so much freaking glee!

And no pain. 

Those runners? Running their joyful/long/fast/what-have-you runs? Yeah, they are doing it without pain. Without a single ounce of pain. They are running super-human speeds and distances known heretofore only to Dean Karnazes and they are doing it all with glee and no pain!

EVERYONE IS RUNNING!

Except for me.

And therein lies the craziness. 

I can't run. And all I see all around me is runners, running. I want to be them. I want to be out there gleefully running 18 hilly miles at 10K pace while pushing a 35lb kid in a stroller -- or whatever the heck those fit, uninjured runners are up to today. I want to be doing it. I don't want to be resting. Or icing. Or compressing. Or elevating. And I certainly don't want to be waiting for an MRI. And then waiting for the follow-up.

But I am. I am doing all of those things I don't want to do, which means I am not running.

And it is driving me crazy.

I know it is for the best and I know whining about it is about as unattractive as it gets. I can't help it. 

Because, you see, I've gone straight-up injured-runner crazy. Please bear with me. I'm sure I won't be this brand of crazy forever. 

At some point my hip will heal and I will run again. And the crazy runner will give way to the happy runner once again. At least I hope so!

Keep your fingers crossed . . . 

Honey, Do You Need a Ride? (review and giveaway)

Honey, Do You Need a Ride? Confessions of a fat runner is a new memoir by Jennifer Graham that will make you chuckle, whether you're a runner or not.

Yes, Jennifer is a runner. A self-proclaimed fat runner (which, if you take a look at her photos, is totally not true, in my opinion). She is also a divorced mom. And one heck of a funny woman.

Her whole package works in this book. She writes in that fast, funny style that makes the book easy to read and hard to put down, simply because you're having so much fun reading. She writes about how "skinny people . . . have no idea what a gift it is to move around with your thighs rubbing together like a couple of superglued hams." And in a chapter titled, "How Nike Made Me a Terrorist" she writes:

"I might be a redneck, not only because I consider Walmart a vacation destination, but because I run with a second-generation iPod strapped to my arm. Also, I own, and sometimes use, a heart-rate monitor even though an eleven-minute miler needs a heart-rate monitor like a single mother of four needs a donkey.

"I am running white trash, a smashed Gatorade cup on the sidelines of life."

But the book is not just about her weight as it relates to running. She also writes about going through her divorce and other ups-and-downs of life and how running has been with her throughout. Graham doesn't run to lose weight -- although she repeatedly talks about how it would be nice if all those miles she's logged would result in weight loss. Instead, she runs for what running gives her: a sense of achievement.

"At its core, Pre said, running gave him a sense of achievement. Here, all these years, I've been thinking I haven't achieved anything because I haven't lost any weight, but there it is. A sense of achievement that didn't come from my children, or my writing, or my oft-admired ability to remember birthdays. A sense of achievement that comes from the simple fact that I run."

I enjoyed this book. True, I enjoy most running books, but this one had the added feature of an interesting story and Graham's light, relate-able writing style. I recommend it!

Would you like to enjoy a copy of the book?

Lucky, lucky. I have a giveaway for you! One reader will win a free copy of the book. To enter, just leave me a comment and let me know you'd like to win!

If you share this giveaway (twitter, pinterest, facebook, etc.), let me know in another comment for an extra entry.

This giveaway will run through Tuesday, May 14th and the winner will be announced on Wednesday.

Good luck!


Thanks for stopping by!

Review disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book for review but was not otherwise compensated. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Flat and flashy -- the Saucony Kinvara 4.

A while back, I posted about an awesome run that happened to take place while I was wearing an awesome new running shoe. I promised that I'd have a review of those shoes once I had a chance to try them out a little more. Today, I'm back with that review.

I was given the opportunity to try out the new Saucony Kinvara 4 running shoes in this super-fresh neon yellow and pink color combination:

CONTINUE READING my review . . . 

Running, with a side of rice.

I had big plans for Saturday. Big plans.

I was meeting my friend, Amanda, for her first run since November. November! She is signed up for the Mohawk-Hudson half marathon in October and the NYC marathon in November. So, Saturday, we -- along with our friend, Bridget -- were heading out for her first run.

It was perfect running weather. I left my house early to run the 3.5 miles to our meeting spot. About 1.5 miles into the run, Bridget passed me in her car. She slowed down, we chatted and I ended up hopping in with her and driving the rest of the way to meet Amanda. 

We were early so we set out to run a mile. A few steps into the run, I felt something weird in my hip.

Pain. Weird pain. Burning, searing, weird pain.

I kept going because that's what happens when you're out for a run on a perfect Saturday morning with friends. The pain, unfortunately, kept going too. About a quarter mile from where we were meeting Amanda, I told Bridget I needed to walk.

I kept my cool but really, inside, this was totally me:

Yup.

Bridget and I met Amanda and after hugs all around, we set out for our run. Fortunately, since Amanda is just getting back to running, she was game for a little run/walk. It was the only thing I could handle and even that didn't feel so good.

I didn't think much about my hip because I was so happy that Amanda was back to running and Bridget and I had about a million questions for her so we chatted and before we knew it, we'd run/walked 2 miles.

It was wonderful. I was really proud of Amanda for getting back out there!

Bridget, me, Amanda

It is tough to start back up with running after a long layoff, especially one that has been filled with personal ups and downs. But, Amanda is doing it. Way to go, Amanda!!!

Since the run I've been hunkered down in RICE City. Rest. Ice. Compression. Elevation. Although, honestly, other than to stand it is a little awkward to try to elevated the hip. And the compression thing is tough, too. So, I'm resting and icing. I guess I'm in RI City. 

Anyway, my hip is still sore and that really rots. I didn't run on Sunday, even though I had plans for a local 5K, and I'm taking today and the rest of the week off. If I feel solid by Wednesday, I'll test the hip out on Friday. Yes, that's right, I'll wait an extra day. 

At least that's what I say now . . . 

No, I will. I really will. I need this hip to be fine. No injuries, please!

And now, I'm off to ice the hip. Healing vibes, anyone? I'll take them. And, while you're at it, if you have some good luck vibes to spare, send some Amanda's way as she rediscovers her running self.

Thanks! Have a great week.

April recap.

April was a good month for me. Although my mileage was way down from March, it was an expected decline and made sense for my training -- I had a taper week before the half marathon followed by a recovery week after. 

The half marathon was great and my runs since have been increasingly good. I'm sure the turn to warm spring weather has had a little something to do with that! I got out for a really good run with my friend, Karen, last weekend and it was one of those recharging runs. Karen is training for a marathon at the end of May and she had a 20 miler on her schedule for last weekend. I ran almost 10 of those miles with her, over one of the hilly routes we'd run several times last year while training for the NJ marathon. It was such a good run! 

May is pretty wide-open for me. I hope to get out and run with friends as much as possible this month and I also plan to get myself in gear for the Freihofer's 5K the first weekend of June. 

Until then, here's a look at the month that was:

Strong Running Mamas in NYC.

At the half marathon expo with Bridget and Elisa.

Enjoyed a few fun runs in my new kicks!

April stats:

Running (miles): 86
Racing: 1, the More/Fitness half marathon

Happy May Day, everyone! Thanks for stopping by.