Bursitis

That was the diagnosis at sports med this afternoon. I told him all my symptoms, how they'd evolved. He put his thumb on one spot on my knee, pressed, asked if it hurt. YEOW. YES. He nailed it. Pes anserine bursitis. Two Aleve twice a day. Lots of ice. PT next week. No running for two weeks. And I had an injection of cortisone today. He's pretty sure this will take care of it and I won't need a return visit. That would be swell. :-) Meanwhile, I'll swim and bike like I've been doing. Could be a lot worse ...

BUSY day today. Work. Lunch with Jean at Thursdays on First & Third. Dr. appt. Picked up my bike from Roch Cycling & Fitness. Brought my laptop that won't get up to Windows in to Miracle Computer. Went to Verizon to try to find a new battery for Eric's phone. Went to Sam's and Walmart (food and Aleve!). Went on a 18.5 mile bike ride with some Team R.E.D. folks, ...



Me climbing Fox Valley Drive

then met Lisa at Thursdays on First & Third to listen to Chester Bay (fun band!).

Me (with wet hair and no makeup) and Lisa





Andy

Well, it's been a full day and time to wrap this up. Good night ...

Home from vacation. Isn't this the cutest purse EVER? I love it!!

I managed to fry my laptop while I was gone. :-( Major bummer. It won't even start up. Guess I'll have to take it somewhere.

7.32 mile slowish run this evening. Picking up my bike tomorrow from the shop after having it in for a tune-up. I'm looking for folks who would like to bike the "run" portion of R.E.D. tomorrow evening. I've propsed 6:00 PM at Bamber Valley School. Let me know if you'd like to ride.

Meeting Jean for lunch at Thursdays on First and Third tomorrow. Should be fun, but warm. :-)

Tired ... later. :-)

In -N- Out

I'm on vacation for another week, but I'll be In -N- Out. Keep checkin in!

RAC runs start on Saturday. Some folks are starting early at 6 bell.

Team R.E.D. is at the Arnold's home in Byron this evening. Check the Team RED Blog for complete info. http://byronteamred.blogspot.com/

Toodles!

Bummer

Yesterday morning I was walking briskly/jogging down Folwell Drive and as the day went on, some tendon behind my left knee got more and more sore. And swollen. So now, I am apparently injured again. I have no idea what I did wrong, but I am very bummed out. So it's ice, rest, and more ice.

I am on vacation this week. Had the MOST delicious dinner last night. Penne pasta with salmon in a dill caper cream sauce. TO. DIE. FOR.

Can you say "Java Chocolate Caramel Cup" three times fast? If so, Gret at Scoop's will give you (or at least he gave me!) a HUGE scoop for free. Thank you Greg!!

Well, I guess I'm swim and then ice some more. :-( Enjoy your day!

Good News

Well, I didn't run Grandma's marathon, didn't go up to spectate, and don't regret either decision. Trying to run a marathon while injured just wouldn't be in my best interest. So I joined Dave D., Jean, Mike, Meredith and Randy McK at Dunn Bros. for a 5 mile loop through Elton Hills/Asissi Heights. NO PAIN. I was thrilled!! It was really toasty this morning. I started cramping at 4.5 miles and later in the day still was cramping (hands, arms, legs, toes) so I decided no more workout for today. And took my bike in for a tune-up.

Looks like Duluth finally came through with ideal marathon weather. From what I saw there were some pretty fast times. Congrats to one and all!!

Yesterday morning I went for a long bike ride after riding 46 the night before.

My bad ... I didn't have breakfast first. Just a nectarine and half a cookie (I think). I had some granola bars with me. Ate one, but decided they just weren't going to do the trick. So I stopped at Kwik Trip in Stewartville for some calories. Nice morning for a ride, but there are a lot of bugs out there.

I saw this rather interesting contraption in High Forest. Push mower attached to a bike pulling something or other!

At about 45 miles, my legs were cramping really bad. Adductors. The ones that make me want to cry or scream. So very painful. I had to get off the bike several times to massage the cramps away. In the end, 70.44 miles. Kind of a tough ride. I was totally wiped out, and very hungry, for the rest of the day.
 
I'm losing an ash tree in the back yard so today I moved the hostas into the shade of some trees next to the garage. I think they'll be happy there.
 

 
Also mowed, put stuff on the ant hills, sprayed the weeds which are now getting rained on :-( and moved a rock border from around the tree getting cut down. It felt good to get all that stuff done.
 
Remember those fun fergalicious black shoes I tried on the other day? Now they're mine. $20 bucks at Famous Footwear. FUN.
 

 
Until next time.

Fun Day

I had a fun day yesterday. And I needed that. I started the day by swimming freestyle for an hour. I had a good swim, for me. Again I was taking two strokes per length off my usual count. At half an hour into the swim I decided to time a lap. I hadn't done that in a long time. 1:00 to 1:01. If I could maintain that, it'd be 36 minutes for a mile. I will NEVER be a swimmer ... but I'm going to keep swimming. Then I got on the Stairmaster for an hour at level 18 of 20. What a workout.

I met my friends Jeanne and Mary for lunch at Panera. I had the strawberry poppyseed chicken salad. Delish.

It's always fun to catch up with them. Then I went over to Famous Footwear looking for some (cheap) shoes to go with my bright yellow (clearance) dress. I'm not much of a clothes shopper unless I get a $15-off-a-minimum-$15-purchase coupon from JCPenney, or have some $10-$20-$40 free bucks at GAP from using my GAP Visa, etc. But I really like shopping for shoes. I didn't find anything for my dress, but I found some really fun shoes and boots on the clearance rack. Didn't buy them, but they're fun!! Marni says she has the Fergalicious shoes. :-) It's hard to see in the photo, but there's a bow on back.

I got this totally fun dress at JCPenney the other day. I just love the neckline on this dress. Maybe I SHOULD buy those shoes ... ??

I'll think about it. :-) $25.

Just after 5:00 I left for Byron on my bike to meet up with Jen, Paul and Lucas for a bike ride from the Bear's Den in lieu of running. I wore my fun little biking skirt.

O'Leary thought we should be called Team B.E.D. (Bike/Eat/Drink). I was thinking Team B.R.E.A.D. (Bike/Run/Eat and Drink) might be more appropriate. :-) It was just a beautiful evening and a great night for a ride. I went through Salem Corners and it was 12.26 miles to the Den. Then since the wind was from the W/NW I decided we're ride up county 5 to county 14, down the Genoa hill (always a rush), through Douglas and back to Byron on county 3. I thought it would be about 18 miles so they agreed that sounded good. It was 25.40 according to my bike computer. Sorry guys ... but they not only survived, they did great! It was Jen's first road ride on her new bike and she rocked it. :-) I'm hoping we can do some more of this. Then I rode home after stopping in the Den for some beer and popcorn. I was starving. By the time I got home it was 8:50 PM and I had in 46.13 miles. Then I went out for my daily run. I was pooped!!

Well, I need to get my banana bread out of the oven and decide what I'm going to do for a workout. I was going to ride long tomorrow but it sounds like it might rain so I might do that today instead.

Good luck, and have fun, to all those running in Duluth this weekend!! Just checked the forecast ... 70% chance of rain, high 52 to 57 by the lake. Perfect marathon weather.

Toodles.

Tired ...

46.something miles on the bike this evening (with a little stop at the Bear's Den before riding home). An hour in the pool this morning. Followed by an hour on the Stairmaster. And a little run after the ride. I am pooped. So I'll do a more comprehensive post in the morning.

Not running Grandma's. It's just not in the cards for this year for many and various reasons ... best of luck, and have fun, to those that are running!

Talk at you in the morning. G'night ...

When It Rains ...

... it's a good day to exercise indoors. So this morning I lifted (I'm including quad work again now to strengthen the muscles around my knees) and swam for an hour. Had a good swim. Consistently took 1 to 2 strokes off every length of the pool. Yes, I count my strokes EVERY length. :-) I'm a "numbers" person after all. Late afternoon was to bring a group bike ride for a few of us but it brough heavy rain instead. So we've postponed our ride until tomorrow. We're going to meet either at the RAC at 5 or the Bear's Den at 6. Stay tuned to Facebook for the up-to-date plans. Anyone is welcome to join us. So instead of the ride, I did 2 hours on the Stairmaster and felt really good. My knee has improved a lot. But ... a marathon is hard on an uninjured body. I don't know that I want to risk further injury and possibly put in jeopardy my running for the summer and possibly biking just to get another finisher's medal. And it wouldn't be a BQ (I've got a little string of 5 going right now). And I wouldn't be proud of it. And I'd have to spend a bunch more money. So my current thinking is that I'm not running. But I'll make my final decision tomorrow. Oh ... I did run around the neighborhood so my string of running every day this year remains intact.

... it's a good day to bake cookies for friends. I'm having lunch with my friends Jeanne and Mary tomorrow. We're celebrating their birthdays, albeit a little late. Especially Jeanne's. But better late than never as they say.

... find cute little bargains in the clearance racks at JCPenney.

Check out the fun HUGE yellow flower ring on the hanger!

... it turns out that I'm going to lose the ash tree in my back yard. Don discovered a large crack in it on Saturday. On Monday, arborist Ed Hayes came over and looked at it. He came back today and said that it really should come down, along with the linden on the east side of the house (I knew this one was in trouble too ... root girdling). And there's some other misc. cleanup that needs to be done. Things are 20 years old and getting overgrown.

... it's a good day to haul 160 pounds of water softener salt from Fleet Farm to the basement. One can always use another upper body workout.

... it's a good day to enjoy a photo of a friend on a mission trip to Tanzania.

We sent some Ts and hats with Paul on his trip. He's going to see if he can sift through his many photos and find a few to send my way. It'd be fun to see some Rochester Half Marathon caps being worn on the other side of the world.

... enjoy yet another of my huge piles 'o veggies and fruit for supper. Along with leftover Brussels sprouts.

Until next time my friends ...

They're Off!!

This evening (until the rain moved in) kicked off the 41st running of the All Comers' track meets at Soldier's Field. And again, it was a very good turnout. I had the responsibilities of: 1) signaling to Jerry at the other end of the track that we were ready for runners, 2) handing out red (2nd place) ribbons, and 3) calling out the finishing order for first, second, third by describing the clothing the runners were wearing. Stressful!! But also lots of fun ...

Benjamin

We skipped the 200 because we'd heard rumbles of thunder and midway through the 800 called the meet because of rain. If you haven't been to one of these before, I encourage you to come watch or better yet, volunteer. They start at 6:00 on the west side of the Soldier's Field track. You can email Laura at lenz.rowekamp@usfamily.net if you'd like to volunteer, or just show up. As I write this I'm enjoying listening to the rain outside. Of course, that's because I'm inside. :-)

I finished the book Running on Empty last week. It's the tale of Marshall Ulrich running across the US (CA to NY) at age 57, averaging more than 2 marathons a day and setting masters' and grandmasters' records in the process. Quite the story. A very enjoyable and easy read. He was able to run through pain, injury, discord amongst the crewmembers. Marshall will be in Winona next week for a group run, book review and book signing. It's at The Book Shelf (162 W. 2nd St) at 5:30 P.M. I encourage you to attend!!

The TriRochester annual picnic is Sunday at the Maurer's home. More info on the TriRochester website.

Rochester Youth for Christ are again selling peaches (and pears) as a fundraiser. I've purchased a lug of peaches from them for the past several years and they are always DELICIOUS. They arrive in July or August depending on whether you order them from Georgia or Colorado. I ordered a lug from Georgia as I'm pretty sure I'll be in town that week. Here's the website: http://www.rochesterareayfc.org/

I had my knee X-rayed today. Haven't heard anything yet, but most likely I will not run the marathon on Saturday.

Until next time then ...

Yesterday evening we had a lovely outdoor meal at Pam King's home. It was a beautiful evening, a delicious meal, with very good friends. It doesn't get much better than that. :-)

The only thing that would have made it better was if Margo and Barbara had been able to join us. We missed them. I brought the Mexican Chocolate Pie. Thank you P.K. for a lovely evening!

Catchin Up ...

It's been a very busy weekend. And I'm very behind on my blogging. So I'll just just jump in with both feet. Here goes ...

Yesterday started wtih picking up my Paul Melby tank at Panera at 7:00. They look very nice. I was surprised to see that it was a photo I took of Paul last year at the Grandma's marathon expo that was on the front of the shirt. A poem from the inside cover of a bulletin from the visitation is on the back.

But the shirts ran very small and unfortunately mine is too tight, especially for a marathon. I'd consider wearing it for a 5K or slightly longer, but no more than that. I'd have serious chafing issues on the arm holes and it just doesn't stretch enough to make it comfortable. I feel bad. There should be lots of these shirts at Grandma's marathon, which is great. I think it would make Paul happy.

After that, I went to the pool to swim freestyle for an hour. Then I went to the Farmer's Market where I saw Mike and Benjamin.

I bought some bread, radishes and beets.

I had a big pile of branches on the patio that I started to chop into small pieces so they'd fit in a trash can.

Then Don Morrison stopped by to look at my trees, the Austrian Pine in particular.

Then I ran 12.14 miles. It's so slow it's pathetic. I haven't decided what I'll do about Grandma's yet. I don't know if I want a 6 hour marathon on my resume. I've run on the Grandma's course twice and been disappointed both times ... almost 5 hours in 2009 when I was injured and it was very hot and I started walking at about 9 miles (with occasional running in the next 7 or 8 miles) and a disappointing 1:38 half marathon last year. I wanted my next Grandma's experience to be a good one. But with the state of my knee/leg/ankle, I just don't know if it's a good idea to even try. I'll see what they say on Tuesday afternoon and not run for the next week and make by decision by the end of the week. Stay tuned.

Yesterday evening, Cindy and Katie stayed with me. They participated in Trinona this morning. They were up bright and early taking off for Winona about 5:45 AM.

This morning I also went over to Winona to watch the triathlon as I knew so many people participating. It was a beautiful morning ... sunny, little wind. I just love the energy and activity at a triathlon. WIth all the starting waves there was always someone to watch ... getting in or out of the water, on or off the bike, running and then finishing. Here are a few snapshots ...

Matt Maurer getting on the bike

The swim venue at Lake Winona

Bill, Joe, Mike, Meredith

Peter

Cindy's wave entering the water

Meredith getting ready for the swim

Transition area

Cindy

Dan Valentine

Meredith

Meredith again!!

Drew

Andy and Jenny

Sawra and Matt

Millie

Katie

Ron

Swim, Bike and Run :-)

Great job one and all! I'm proud of every single one of you for being out there and giving it your all!! Then it was home for a 10.00 mile "run" and then off to Bee's Knees Honey (aka the Shonyo's) for a lovely afternoon.

Rick had purchased a dinner here at the Lace-Up silent auction back in February and I was very lucky to be included on the guest list. (Thank you Rick!)

We had a few raindrops on and off but that didn't take away any of the fun of being together and learning more about beekeeping. And let's not forget the delicious dinner!

The afternoon also included a walk with Zella (the Shonyo's dog).

I brought cookies and cherry pie.

Well, I've got a pie to make for tomorrow evening (my Cooking Light group). And I got about 4 hours sleep last night. Time to call this quits. Good night friends.