On The Mend! And BEAUTIFUL Inside for a Beautiful Outside!

I am on the mend.

I am walking normally now and it appears I have done something to my hamstring. Since my ACL was reconstructed using one of my hamstrings of the same leg, I was worried that I had done some serious damage. But I already feel better. My college trainer thinks I might have pulled the hammie or hyperextended it or something like that. All of that just means I will probably recover pretty quickly. I just need to keep an eye on it.

Elliot is officially allowed to say "I told you so" to me now, whenever he would like. Go for it, Elliot.

I am STILL sick... and this is the sickest I've been in awhile. It's in my chest now, so every time I breathe in I sort of hack the breath back out. I think the fever has worked its way out of my system and hopefully in a couple of days I'll be back to my regular self.

I just wanted to let you all know and thank you SO SO so SO so much for your concern and support. I definitely gave myself a scare and I appreciate you all being here to listen...! So thank you.

With much mushy gushy lovey-doveyness:
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

With that I will leave you with my new favorite commercial of the moment. Not only are there dogs involved... but the message is great! A beautiful inside for a beautiful outside. I like it.

Unexpected Update: The story of my Saturday.

I am stopping in briefly to let you know I have re-injured my ACL-surgery knee. I am not going to be running anytime soon as I am having trouble walking normally.

I have had ZERO problems since the surgery in February of 2005. There has been no pain, I’ve enjoyed full range of motion, and I had the luxury of forgetting it even happened.

Well I broke the 5-year streak on Saturday. I finally got a chance to play basketball, and BAM man down. Obviously I’ve played plenty of basketball in the past 5 years, just this one time I got unlucky.

Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly what’s wrong or how long it’s going to take for me to recover so I can run again.

Here’s what happened:

On Saturday I played 2v2 with Elliot and some mutual friends. We got in two solid games and I felt great. It’s amazing that I might take months at a time off from even touching a basketball then I come back to it and my shot is still there. I have been called Miss Fundamental probably because I actually play defense in pick-up games. I am not flashy, but I box-out, have my hand out in the passing lanes and shut my player down, play help D, set screens, etc. etc. I can hit shots, too, and as a former point guard I can get the ball where it needs to go. I would call myself a solid player and when I have a good game I hit a lot of outside shots.

In our third game I faked a shot and had my player beat, coming in from the right hand side. But when I went in to the paint he had recovered and contested my shot. AKA I got blocked. There was contact in the air and as I came down I landed SINGLY on my left (ACL-surgery) leg. The leg felt unsteady as I landed on it, all of my weight was on it, and it wobbled. Nothing snapped, and there was no immediate pain, but I knew right away that SOMETHING had happened. I was limping and we paused the game. I tried to walk it off.

I called everyone back to get the game going, but as soon as the ball was checked and my player dribbled to the left I couldn’t push off my left leg to move to my right to stay with him. I got REALLY UPSET. We’re talking MAJOR meltdown at the YMCA.

I walked out of the gym and into the locker room just so I had somewhere to cry. I cried and then re-grouped, then went back into the gym to sit and watch them play ‘til we got kicked out for a Zumba Party.

The Symptoms: Currently my range of motion is restricted. All the pain is directly BEHIND my knee. There’s no sharp pain, instead the whole area feels like it needs to pop. There is a LOT of pressure. The knee feels tight sort of like it is swollen. Going down stairs is even harder than going up stairs, but neither of those is going well. If I’m sitting on the floor I can’t get up to a stand without help of something to grab onto. I can’t put all my weight on that leg, it feels unstable.

 

I spent most of Sunday moping around, napping, and crying. Every time I had to move around I started crying again because I felt so limited and awkward. It’s also really scary that the problem involves my surgery knee. I take that very personally. I’m also a worrier by nature.

COMBINE this injury with finally coming down with the flu, and you have one pretty miserable person. Elliot and I are both very sick. I slept 10 hours on Friday but still woke up tired, and same story for last night. I am now coughing and had a fever. I am tired and my muscles and joints hurt.

 

I have some good news, and I was saving it for the end of the post so I can go out on a hurrah. I got a great 8-mile run in on Saturday early afternoon before the basketball dramatics.

I just went, and like I mentioned I was starting to get sick and was feeling a little out of it, so I set out on this run with no anticipation of speed or distance. I just wanted some fresh air and some time to think about nothing.

I went by feel and actually I felt great. Mid-run I broke through the tiredness. I love that moment. I decided to take on the Chestnut Street HILL which is always a killer workout.

SATURDAY RUN

Total Distance: 8 miles

Total Time: 1 hr:04 minutes

Average Pace: 8:01 min/mi

Splits: 8:45, 7:46, 7:55, 8:09 (hill), 8:13 (hill), 7:44, 7:36, 7:57

Notes: Beautiful day, great run, hopefully I will be back to this soon.

 

As far as recovery goes, I emailed my college trainer who rehabbed me following the original knee injury. Hopefully she will get back to me with some ideas as far as the seriousness of the injury. I hope I am overreacting and that in a couple of days I will feel back to normal.

I am icing and trying to keep the leg loose. Elliot went with me for a sloooooow walk yesterday evening. It felt good to move around, but at the same time so awkward and stiff.

I also put my name in to the orthopedic surgeon I saw after the biking-car accident last year. Hopefully by the time I get an appointment I won’t need it. I hate all the hoops you have to jump through just to see a doctor. I probably need a referral and getting in touch with my PCP is like going to see the Wizard. I miss being a varsity athlete in college with doctors and trainers and a fully-equipped training room.

 

Okay. That’s what I’ve got for now. Leave me some good news!

Thanks for listening!

Fooooooooooooooooooood.

I have four letters for you today: TGIF. You know what it means. (Want thirty-seven more meanings for those four letters? LOL. Well if you do, first thank acronym geek, then click here).

 

Really I could talk about acronyms all day. In sixth grade I needed extra work in English class so my teacher gave me a list of 100 acronyms. And this was before the birth of Google! I actually used real dictionaries and encyclopedias.

But I’ll spare you anymore of that.

I am now going to share a few of my food favorites from the recent past.

 

I had already started eating this a couple of nights ago and I thought to myself… why not take a picture? So I did.

I LOVE SPAGHETTI SQUASH.

I love it so much because every single time I cook it I’m surprised at how easy it is to cook… it never ceases to amaze me. If something is simple and easy to cook, then I am hooked.

Here is what I do:

• Use a fork to pierce the whole squash all over.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Cook the squash for about an hour.
• That’s it! Let it cool and cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, and use a fork to scrape out the squash.

 

And it is delicious! Some of the sites that tell you how to cook spaghetti squash say it is bland all by itself, well I don’t think so at all! It has a sort of sweet flavor and is fabbbbulous.

Elliot stir-fried some veggies and eggs and veggie sausage to put on top of our Spaghetti Squash Mountains. That’s another thing I like about this squash. You get a lot!

Yum.

 

Okay. Just one more food picture for you. Then I have to get back to work. I’ve been busy lately so if you’ve felt a little less loved by me that is why. DO NOT FRET! I LOVE YOU ALL DEARLY!

 

I also love THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY.

So here is what I ALWAYS get at the Cheesecake Factory: the Seared Tuna Tataki Salad. One of my favorite dishes ever. DEEEEeeeelish.

Pacific Albacore Tuna Lightly Seared and Served Rare with Avocado, Tomato and Mixed Greens Tossed with Wasabi Vinaigrette.

Elliot got the Miso Salmon. He’s tried all different dishes here, but this is the first thing he ever ordered. I think it’s a keeper. I tried it and it gets two Lacey thumbs up.

Fresh Miso Marinated Salmon Served with Snow Peas, White Rice and a Delicious Miso Sauce.

 

And of course there were other food-related items involved:

 

 

CHEERS TO FRIDAY! Have a great day!!

TIaRT- Running Out of the Box- Hi, Kate!

This week's sponsor, Kate of OOKate. She offers readers this question to ponder and respond to:

 

What's the most unconventional race you've ever run? Have you run a race like North Carolina's "Take Pride in your Hide" naked race? Does your local running group have "prediction runs" where everyone guesses their finish time, and the winner is the person who has the closest guess? How about a Mud Run? If you could make up a wacky race, what would the twist be?

 

The first thing that comes to my mind: Trail Racing. This was a shock to my running system. Over the past 3-4 years I’ve done nothing but roads and friendly forest paths. This past summer however, I veered off course, convinced by a friend I compulsively signed up for a trail racing series. WOW that stuff is NOT for everyone. It appears to be its own culture and it is drastically different from road racing. It’s even different from what I know of cross-country. We’re talking GRAVITY CAVITY and THE HILLS THAT NEVER END and ROCKS THE SIZE OF MY LIVING ROOM.

Here’s a few snapshots from the summer:

It’s fun to get dirty, feel like you might die barreling down a mountain, leaving your comfort zone behind, and meeting new (*cough*crazy*cough*) people!

 

Thanks Kate for a great topic for this Thursday!

 

And speaking of out of the box… has anyone seen this hilarious cat clip? Oh my gosh it kills me.

Happy Thursday!!!!!!

The Track Takes My Breath Away.

If you look at Bart Yasso's training plans for 5k and 10k races, he has you run 12x400 track workouts. Well, Bart, I only did 8 repeats today. But I think it was a good effort. I was pretty winded.

WEDNESDAY TRACK WORK

Total Distance: 6 miles

8x400 Repeats (with half that distance recovery jog in between)

• 1:31
• 1:26
• 1:25
• 1:27
• 1:26
• 1:27
• 1:27
• 1:27

Notes: I warmed up with a mile and cooled down with two miles. Gosh this was tough. The last few 400s I felt sick to my stomach. I guess I will work up to 12!

Right now Elliot and I are watching "V" and relaxing. Earlier this evening I met a Midd prospective student for her Alumni Admissions Interview. Soooomehow we ended up talking about Twilight. She's Team Edward. I dunno if I can give her a positive review... lol. JUST KIDDING!!!! But, seriously. GO TEAM JACOB. I was pulling for Jacob even in the first book! I don't know why!!! I always liked him better than Edward.

I also had a chocolate-banana vivanno since the interview took place at Starbucks. GREAT track workout follow-up.

Oh and if I wasn't posting on blogger I would totally drop in the Take My Breath Away music video right here. You'll just have to picture Tom Cruise and sing it to yourself in your head. Or click here to go to it on youtube.

Have a good night!

Amy’s Season Opener and I’m Looking For Some Speed.

Thanks so much to my sister Amy for posting yesterday about her thoughts on athletic burnout. She’s actually a sports management major at her college so in addition to having the athlete’s perspective from her own sport, she has had four years of academic exposure to more global issues surrounding sports.

Last night Amy played right here in Cambridge (out of conference pre-season game) so I was able to go with Elliot and my parents to her first game of her senior season!

Captain!

 

Number 10!

 

Deee-fense… deee-fense…

 

Baseline shot fake blow by…

It was a pretty evenly matched first half, but then Amy’s team stomped Lesley in the second half and won easily by 20.

 

Here I am with my mom!

My mom goes to every single one of Amy’s games! My dad comes when there is no conflict with my brother Kyle’s track meets (Kyle and Amy are twins). My parents are super fans! They came to every single one of my basketball games over the years.

Yes, it’s official: IT’S BASKETBALL SEASON, folks!

I’m thinking about getting a YMCA membership just so I have somewhere to play. Whenever winter rolls around I go through the same basketball-gym-seeking behavior. It’s tough though because the Y is $58/month (and $100 to join) but my current gym is $10/month (0 to join). That’s a tough switch. The thing is I would get a full facility including fitness classes, yoga, basketball, cardio and weights, you name it. Is it worth the switch? I have to think about it. I make a lot of compulsive decisions, so I’m waiting this one out for a little while.

Tonight my parents are actually coming BACK down to Boston to go with me and Elliot to the Boston College game versus St Francis (out of conference pre-season). One of my dad’s best friends is the assistant coach for St Francis so he got tickets for all of us.

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Let’s get back to running for a second. Running is always in season, right?

I was in NYC all weekend with Elliot and his family. On Saturday I ran down Queens Boulevard and veered off into a huge cemetery. This was a good decision because running on a main road is just way too hectic. I was dodging people and waiting at street lights. And on Saturday I felt FAST so I just wanted to go. In the cemetery I found a 1-mile loop. It wasn’t pancake flat, but I decided to do mile repeats anyway.

SATURDAY MAKESHIFT TRACK WORK

Total Distance: 6.5 miles

Total Time: 47:58

Average Pace: 7:23 min/mi

Splits:

• 7:49 warm-up mile
• 1st Mile Hard- 6:49
• .25 recovery at 8:06 pace
• 2nd Mile Hard- 6:23
• .50 recovery at 9:36 pace- lol I was dying!
• 3rd Mile Hard- 6:23
• .25 recovery at 8:45 pace
• 7:54 cool-down mile, then half a mile at 7:25 to finish the route

Notes: It was RAINING. I got soaked. It was AWESOME. I was alone in the cemetery except for one guy I saw once, and one girl walking her dog I saw once. This was a therapeutic run for me. I have had almost a month of what I would call unproductive running meaning I’m not planning ahead or designing workouts for a purpose. But I’m trying to get my foot in the speed door. This was a good effort.

 

Then on Sunday late-morning after a late-night out we all convened at Central Park. I ran with Elliot’s brother Jonah who has been training seriously since the beginning of September. Elliot ran with his mom. The rest of the crew walked. This sort of thing just makes me ridiculously happy. Instead of going straight to brunch we enjoyed the nice day. And it was really beautiful out. Central Park was PACKED with runners, walkers, bikers,… people everywhere! Being active! It’s incredible.

 

SUNDAY RUN IN THE PARK

Total Distance: 6.3 miles

Total Time: 49:27

Average Pace: 7:50 min/mi

Splits: 8:43 (this threw off our average because I started my watch during our jog to the park… whoops), 7:57, 7:47, 7:31, 7:19 (a downhill!!!), 7:47 (an uphill!!!), and the last .3 at 7:37 push to the end.

Notes: I got seriously tired on this run. I’m blaming the hard effort the day before. But Jonah was completely fresh so I struggled to stay with him and even though it was tough, I stuck it out. Gotta love those Central Park hills.

 

 

Then Monday night I headed out for a quick run before my parents arrived for Amy’s game. This was what Karyn calls a HAPPY run. I felt lighthearted and clearheaded. In contrast my angry or emotional management (lol) runs just BURST from the beginning. They are strong runs but with a fizzle toward the end. My happy runs feel much more maintainable.

MONDAY TEMPO RUN

Total Distance: 5.25 miles

Total Time: 39:34

Average Pace: 7:32 min/mi

Splits: warm-up 8:11, tempo 3-miles 7:12, 6:59, 6:47, cool-down 8:17

Notes: I didn’t actually set out on this run thinking it would be a tempo. But when I felt fast I decided to commit to it. I settled on 3-miles hard effort and that is what I did.

 

 

HAPPY TUESDAY! T-2 days until the Project Runway finale part 2. Who’s it going to be?! They are all kind of a mess at this point. Who’s mess will be the best mess?! Make it work everyone. Tim says so.

In case you are interested, buy the talking bobble head Tim Gunn here.

What will they think of next.

Have a great day!