Sunday, May 5, 2013

The post about LSD, orthotics, downtown drunks and blisters

I  have had a busy few days to say the least.  Friday brought me happiness.  I went shopping with a friend, and the same friend gifted me with a ton of clothes.  It seems bizarre to me that my thin friend, who has always been thin, just gave me a bunch of clothes that she's done with and they fit me!  She gave me things that are a bit big on her (size 8 and medium), and a few of the pieces still had the original sales tags on them! I also shopped at Reitman's and used my gift card.  So my day of shopping, which resulted in 15 pieces of clothing, didn't cost me a dime.  I LOVE that!

Just finished LSD!
Taken around 9:15 am...


Saturday morning was an early one.  I was up at 5:30 am because I had to complete my long run by 9 am.  This meant that I had to eat before my run because I was running my long slow distance (LSD) 18K.  I ate hard boiled eggs and a few tablespoons of natural peanut butter, mapped out a 6K loop around my house, fueled up with my gummies and water, got my radio set up on my MP3 player and headed out at 6:45 am WITH my orthotics in my shoes.  Why the orthotics you ask? Well because I'm stubborn and don't want to listen to medical professionals who tell me that I shouldn't run in them for at least a couple of weeks, and then only for a short run.  It had  only been a week since I got them before I took them out on a 18K run.

I always head out east from my house when I run.  Heading west would have me running through downtown.    I was feeling like I needed some change this run, so I mapped a downtown route that I would repeat three times.  The only people out at 6:45 in the morning in downtown Hamilton are drunks, I'm just say'in.  And who knew that downtown was so freaking hilly?  I don't mind hills, but jeez Louise, that many hills, that early in the morning?  Daunting!

Anywho, the first lap was fine.  I was a little slow because it was early and after 6K, all I could think was, "I have 12 freaking more kilometers to run"!  After 12K, I thought "I should really go back to my house and take these orthotics out, I'm getting a blister on the bottom of my foot". The rationale behind me not doing that was because I also thought, "I only have 6K left..."  So I ran about 10K with a blister on the bottom of my left foot.  Serves me right because I laughed at the person who fitted me for the orthotics when she told me she ran in hers right away and got a blister on the bottom of her foot.  Needless to say, the blister was big, right in my arch and full of clear puss.

The blister.  Hard to see...
A better view!



























I didn't have time to nurse it.  I had to get cleaned up and out the door by 10:30 am.  We were headed to Scarborough for a visit with my MIL since we won't be visiting next weekend for Mother's Day.  After that, we were headed to our (mine and hubby's) old high school for the open house.  It was strange being back at my old high school.  Like I mentioned before, high school was not a pleasant experience for me.  But that was the past and I certainly hope I have moved on from there.  I didn't see many people from my year that I recognized.  Definitely no one I hung around with.  I did see some of my old teachers and our old principal.  My favorite teacher Mr. Best was there and he hasn't changed at all.  Neither had the school.  Other than the color of the lockers, everything was almost the same.  Like it was stopped in time. It was a good experience over all and Julien loved seeing where mommy and daddy went to school.  He had ball!  They had a robotics room set up and I couldn't get him out of that place.  He was definitely loving the display and the students who built the robots let him play with the controls too.  He was is heaven!

What I wore.  The top was
from my friend, the jacket
Reitman's. Taken at 10:30 am.


Julien playing in the robot lab.
Although you can't see it, he was feeding the robot
bean bags.

























Saturday night was supposed to be a relaxing night at home.  I wanted to start the laundry and just veg out since I ran 18K in the morning and had been going all day.  No such luck.  My 25 year old washer broke mid cycle and I had to bag everything up and head to the laundry mat.  On the one hand, I was pissed.  On the other, I got my laundry done in 1.5 hours.  It normally takes me the weekend to get all the loads done.  I used a couple of mega load machines, one for dark colors, one for light colors, and was done after one wash and one dry.  No one was there and I finished reading my book of smut (which just in case you were wondering, Kate and Aidan did make it)! Before I went to bed last night, all my laundry was folded and put away.  Not too shabby.  Hubby figured we should get a new machine ASAP.  I'm okay if we take our time shopping.  I can do the laundry mat again next weekend.  But I know soon enough that it will get old and I'll want the convenience of a washer in my house once again.

This morning was run club and I ran 7K with my 10K clinic.  I ran on my blistered foot, with the orthotic again.  I think I'll leave them out  for my run tomorrow morning.  I need to let the blister heal before I stick them back in.  I have another 18K run next weekend and I'm hoping it will be healed by then so I can wear the orthotics again.  Did it solve my crampy toe problem?  Well, my toes still cramped, but didn't stay cramped like the usually do.  The would cramp, then the cramp would go away, then they'd cramp, then it would go away.  It was definitely an improvement, but I imagine that my feet still need to get used to them.  I'm still looking forward to the day I will run pain free.  I hope that day comes real soon.  Marathon training begins at the end of June.  YIKES!