Monday, February 6, 2012

My Nipples Are Out of Shape

Even though I've always been too busy to post every few days, I still feel kinda guilty that this is my first post about my running in almost a month and a half.  To my credit, I did spend a fair amount of effort last month putting together an interview with a local running celebrity who ran in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

Part of my reason for not posting much had to do with me taking some time off from running thanks to a hip flexor injury that had me sidelined for the month of January. Like most running injuries, it can be attributed to too much intensity, not enough rest/recovery.

Starting last week, I eased back into running even though I can tell I'm not 100% healed. Just 3 miles last Monday as I wanted to see how the hip felt the rest of the day. I ran 6 miles on Tuesday, then 8 on Thursday. I had been keeping up on cardio so I didn't feel out of shape. However, it's impossible to stay in running shape when you're not running, so my muscles did get sore despite my workout's lack of distance or speed. Saturday I went to the gym where I ended up running 12 miles, and riding a stationary bike 22 miles. It was at this point where I looked at my shirt and saw my right nipple had been bleeding.  I can't remember the last time my nipple bled after only 12 miles (I don't think ever). Usually a 20 miler gives me a 50/50 shot at being blood free without Body Glide. I guess as my running goes, so do my nipples.

Another reason for being absent on the blog front lately is because I've been working on my blog behind the scenes. I won't go into too much detail at this point because I've still got a kink or two to work out; I'll dedicate a whole other post to it soon, but I have been developing a Running Blog Database (See the tab menu item). The easy part was getting it set up and programming the webpage for it. The time consuming part is populating it with as many running blogs as I can find. That might be a never ending task. I got the idea for it because sometimes I have difficulty remembering which blogger belongs to which blog when I try to look them up. Hopefully, other bloggers will find as many practical uses for it I I do and bookmark it.

Last but not least, Jill sponsored a popular Secret Santa gift exchange over the holidays and this is my first opportunity to blog about it.  Besides being 2 Slow 4 Boston, I'm also 2 slow to post about a Christmas exchange before January ends.  I wasn't sure beforehand if I was even going to post about the exchange, but turns out my Secret Santa really hooked me up and I felt it deserved mentioning.  Johann from across the pond in South Africa was my personal Santa. I found out that the South African mail system is about as screwed up as our political system, seeing as how it took the package almost a month to reach me. Johann sent me a Comrades Marathon hat, a South African edition of Runner's World, and a microfibre towel.
Gifts from Johann

One thing I found fascinating about reading a Runner's World from another continent was their different use of the English language, along with different units of measure.  Below I took a snapshot of one example where they used kilojoules to indicate how much energy is supplied.  I had to look it up but 1 calorie equals 4.1806 kilojules.
Excerpt out of Runner's World's South Africa edition.
Now that I've got a Comrades Marathon hat, I feel an urge to run the race.  It would be a good challenge.
Thanks Johann for the
Christmas presents!




13 comments:

abbi said...

Hope the running continues to go well. The database is a great idea. Though, I imagine that was a huge task getting all in that you could into it...hopefully others will help to add and help with maintenance on it!

Christi said...

I am excited to see your running blog database!

Michael said...

I think the running blog database is a great idea, and the Secret Santa gifts are pretty cool. The hat alone is not something just everyone has lying around. :-)

Indi said...

OK..gotta admit, I went straight to the Gelato picture :) No seriously the database is an awesome idea.
Hope that hip flexor is getting to feeling better. when mine starts getting a little tight, its a lot of yoga for me that resolved it

misszippy said...

What a great job Johann did with those gifts! And I like the database idea.

Terzah said...

Thank you for putting that database together! I have trouble remembering who goes with which blog, especially for common first names. Looking forward to seeing this when you get it up.

I think Comrades would be fun. That will be an unusual item to wear at your races. Pair it with your Pikes Peak stuff and people will think you're even more hard-core. :^)

Jill said...

The database rocks, defintely would be useful! I'm pretty good at stealing other's ideas and then begging that person to help me...so count on many emails from me later as to how it works! :)

Great gifts from Johann. I think a RW from anothe country would be pretty cool, does it have a lot of advertisements for races in SA? Comrades is on my bucket list...one day!

ajh said...

Great post title. You may get a lot of hits for this one.


Love the hat!!!

Char said...

That cap is great!!

My parcel arrived - thank you so much. And I managed to work out how to use the MP3 without any help from my sons or reading the flyer. It's so easy to use. I haven't run with it yet (because I'm not allowed to run for another week and a half at least) but it performs beautifully when I'm sewing and when I'm walking. And a couple of my squad friends were looking at it quite enviously. :)

Johann said...

Glad you are getting back into running. Take it easy and soon you are back to normal.
Thanks for the shoutout! I think a Comrades with me, you and Jill should be fun! I hope to run it this year and use the training and race as part of my Pikes Peak training.

Coy Martinez said...

Ahhh, that's cool you got that stuff from South Africa!

My hip flexor went a little funny on me back in December. It hurt to sleep on but when I would run it would seem to loosen up. Odd part, is that I've known about 5 people lately who have had trouble with it. I kinda wonder if it's because we run faster in winter?? Hmmmm.??

Paul said...

The database would be cool! I'm sure you'll get a ton of hits on it as everybody that's in it will probably post a link to it ;)

Re: nips. I find the shirt type makes a lot of difference. Also the weather...cold and perky? ;)

Damn you are wearing Comrades hat and you haven't run it? That's just WRONG!

Finishing healing up soon....

Lily on the Road said...

Not too sure how I stumbled across your blog, but I'm glad I did.

What a great idea to have a Secret Santa who sends such GREAT gifts.