Yellloooo!

Hey everyone!! Sorry I haven't updated in about...10 days to be exact but I've found myself ridiculously busy both at work and at home the last week or so. Don's mom and grandma were in town from MI this past long weekend so we were running around acting like tourists again and having a blast doing it. Again, I'm glad to hear so many people are reading this! I'm even getting requests to write more often =) I do need to do that though, I agree. So I'm sure everyone's gathered that I'm having knee issues with my marathon training. Let me tell you...it is SO FRUSTRATING!! I've never had knee or any kind of leg issues - ever. And I would have known by now because of how super athletic I've always been up to now. HAHA...if anyone knows me from the past you should know how true that is (Michelle) ;) Regardless, knee issues. It's not really the knee but again the IT band which connects in the knee and has tightened up so much that it's pulling at my knee cap. It hurts is what I'm saying. I feel like I have a pretty high pain tolerance too - I'm not what some would call 'a wuss' even though I don't know how to spell that word (wuss)haha.
So I was doing good, going to the doctor, rolling on my foam roller, stretching and all that good stuff - feeling like it was really making a difference - Tuesday we ran at a high school track in circuits to improve stamina and time and I did really well - minor pain. Thursday I skipped because of our company but we were sure to make it to the 12 mile run on Saturday! I started off and I felt AMAZING! I was running and talking with my friend/teamate Kim and we had ran 6 miles before we even knew it! Just like that. done. Not breathing heavily, not a lot of knee pain, just steady running. So we turned around to run the 6 back but Kim kept going because she was doing 14 miles, so I made my way back...alone. I felt ok most of the way, kind of tired - little bored. Made it to the last water stop which was a little over 2 miles away from the end. Got some water and some jelly beans ;) and started to head to my finish and something happened. My knees stiffened right up from stopping I guess. I can't even describe this pain it was that bad. I felt like a 90 year old woman. Hopefully I didn't look like it too! I guess I must have pushed it a little too far too soon. So bummed out. Have been kind of taking it easy since then, not planning on running this week probably. Fortunately Don's mom is a massage therapist so she gave me an amazing massage last night to loosen up those muscles.
Other than that, I'm going back to the doctor tomorrow so we'll see how it goes. But no one fret, I WILL be running that race. I don't want to give anyone the impression that this will not be overcome and that the money that's being donated will be a waste. First of all, the money goes to an AMAZING cause with or without me running and second of all, I've come this far - I feel like if it weren't for my knee I would be able to run 12 miles no problem so when this gets taken care of...I'm good to go. So that's where we stand.
Speaking of where we stand, I have (sadly) only $225 raised. This is harder than the running - even with a bum knee! I need everyone's help!! I'm glad everyone's staying tuned and reading my blogs but there's more to it than that! My time to raise funds is getting shorter and I'm getting more nervous -I can't let it come down to the very last minute so if you haven't donated yet and you want to donate, PLEASE visit my fundraising site:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honolulu08/sverbeke

Come back soon!!

Update

Good morning all!! I guess it won't necessarily be morning when everyone reads this but anyhow...have a few minutes while I'm waiting for my experion components to come to room temperate ;) so I know I said I would post an update on the knee situation so:
I went to Dr. Morganstein in Walnut Creek who is a chiropractor that specializes in muscle work. He told me pretty much what I already knew though, that it's most likely the IT band that has not been properly stretched out and thus is a really tight muscle that is pulling on the patella or knee cap. Even though I already figured that, I needed him to tell me what to do about it!! So my "treatment" is to a) buy a foam roller like the ones you see at the gym and try to roll out the muscle to release the tension and any cartlidge that has built up in the knee cap now and then b) I've gone to his office on both Tuesday and Thursday of this past week for sessions where he pretty much just uses a lot of pressure and different techniques to release that tension in the muscle. It's pretty funny though because I went in yesterday after work and I had changed into my gym shorts and I wore my sweatshirt in because it's freezing in there - but you have to warm up the muscles before you start stretching and pulling at them so he put these little electrical impulse things on the right side of my leg then covered them with a towel, then this big heavy heating pad thing, then another blanket to get the muscle warmed up - all of this while I'm laying on a table with my head propped up slightly, my neck wrapped in one of those neck pillows and my knees propped up with these two big white pillows and you have to lay there for 10-15 minutes so yeah...what I'm saying is...I fell asleep!! Hahaha. I was so comfortable! Then he came back over and I opened my eyes and I had to confess, I was like wow - I'm falling asleep over here - he was like yeah that happens a lot, I put my patients that snore in the back room-haha. At least I didn't start snoring I guess ;) After that he just kind of massages specific muscles which are SO SORE. You think 'oh sweet, a massage' but not so much here, it's really really painful because there is so much tension in those muscles. Anyways as to whether it helped or not...I think so, so far. For the last few weeks it's been hurting me both when I run and the days following just while I walk at work or whatever but it's not really doing that anymore. I ran yesterday with some other girls and we were doing about 4 miles total and I probably ran 3 out of 4 which is better than it has been for me. Still some pain but I can't expect it to go away in two days, although that would be nice. After last nights run I rolled it out on the foam roller thing, then iced it. It got pretty stiff when I went to sleep so it kind of hurt to bend but the pain has dulled. Now it's just feels kind of stiff, not as much like my knee cap is out of place so I guess that's good?? Anyways I'll be doing about 4-5 treatments with Dr. Morganstein over the next couple of weeks so we'll see how that goes. Thanks for everyone's concern again! You can help dull the pain by going to my fundraising site and making a donation if you haven't already - haha! http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honolulu08/sverbeke
I only have $200 raised and I need $3700 more!!! oh my...

Head, shoulder, KNEES and toes - KNEES and toes :)

Hello all! I'm happy to hear that people are actually reading this. I know this is true because I've had several people checking in on me about the knees ;) So a tiny update is just that I didn't run the 8 miles this past weekend, but like I said - probably not a huge deal since I ran 7.6 the week before and that's not a huge difference. I walked about 4 miles total but nothing too strenuous. I have a doctors appointment today at 3:00 so hoping that I actually get out of work on time today I will have more info. on what to do and when I'll be able to get back out there!! From what I've gathered right now from my coach and some running peers is that it's probably the IT band. Large muscle that runs from your hip all the way down and does a lot of connecting in the knee area. From what I understand if this muscle tightens up and isn't stretched properly it can pull at the patella or knee cap causing...yeah, pain. So I'm hoping that's what it is, if I have to hope for some kind of pain in the first place because it can be fixed. The doctor I'm going to today does some kind of muscle targeting and pressure release technique that I think might be really helpful. So, thanks for the concern everyone and I'm glad to hear people are reading - will post an update after I go today. Other than that though...this past Saturday night, one of the guys we run with had a little party at his house so I have some pictures from that because my friend Clara made me the most delicious cheesecake I've ever had (original NY style cheesecake with a chocolate sauce, fresh raspberries, AND chocolate covered strawberries on top!!!) So they surprised me with it and sung me happy birthday again, which was really nice. We had a lot of fun and it was a good turnout. Hopefully the same will happen for the beer pong tournament!! The one on the left is me going "no way, is that real??"

Want to know what my wish was for?? -Everyone to visit my fundraising page at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honolulu08/sverbeke (if you haven't already) and make a donation, big or small to help me and most importantly to help those paitents that are battling leukemia and lymphoma!!! (and I'm going to need to keep running to burn off that cheesecake!!)

Not the brightest crayon in the box :(

So I turned 25 the other day and as a gift to me from some other power - pain in the knees. So we went to the track workout on my actual birthday (9/9) to do a little running, I got about half done and my knee started bothering me again so I stopped and walked the rest. I was kind of bummed out because I don't want the knee problem to keep affecting me throughout the season. Most days it's just a dull pain that I can easily handle but this particular day it was hurting pretty bad. After the run (my walk) my lovely boyfriend Don decided to announce it was my birthday so I got a very harmonious Happy Birthday sung to me by the whole team. Here's a pic of the song in progress:

It was nice - I got a ton of happy birthday wishes so it made my knee feel better. So I decided, I must go to the chirpractor because I don't want this problem slowing me down to that 26.2 mark so the smart option would have been to maybe just take it easy until I get it looked at since there's obviously something wrong. Well that's where not the brightest crayon in the box comes in. After I had issues walking for the next two days, we had a buddy run on Thursday(9/11) with a small group from the team. Instead of just taking it easy and walking I thought well I'll run for a little while then walk. So I ran for about 15-20 min. and then thought I should walk so I don't strain any muscles or what not. I walked about 10 min and then decided to run a little more. NOPE. Bad idea. I don't know what I did but it felt like just splinters of pain up not one but both of my knees this time. Smart move Sara. I probably was favoring that leg and put more strain on the other! Dull crayon. So anyways I walked the rest of the time which was painful still, went to the store and bought a bag of ice and some aleve, went home and iced both of my knees - wow, no I don't sound old do I?? I had trouble walking into my bedroom I was in so much pain but today after the ice they feel really good. I'm still going to wait until I see the chiropractor on Tuesday before I run again. This Saturday's run is 8 miles but I figured since I ran 7.6 las weekend it's not going to be a crazy set back if I don't run. Next weekend it's 10!! Getting into double digits. Saturday's run is in Livermore so I might go down with Don to support the team....there also happens to be some good wineries down there, what a coincidence! Anyways, will post more on the old knees when I find out - as of now I'll be doing some low impact workouts until then. Also tons of thanks to those who have donated already - got my first $100 YAY!!

Saturday Coached Run 9/6/09

Helllooooo alll!! Saturday (9/6) we were scheduled to run 7 miles - we meet at 8:00a.m. with the whole team on Saturdays so it's pretty early but nice because we get out and get started before whoever decides to turn on the heat! We ran this weekend in Walnut Creek which was nice because it's only like 5 miles from our house. Don didn't run this weekend - he was busy planning his company picnic which I attended after the run with Clara. I was running a few minutes late this morning. The picture on the left is our head coach - Coach Al. What I missed while I was running a few minutes late was him announcing that the course was a little longer than 7 miles. So when I got to the 7 mile marker and the course was not ending, I was thoroughly confused. Turns out the course was 7.6 miles! Guess I should be there on time for any surprise announcements next time :) You don't think an extra .6 miles is a big difference but when your looking forward to the end of 7 miles and you have to run for another .6....it's kind of a big deal. Anyways, the run went GREAT this morning. A hill around mile 3 kind of slowed me down but then from 3 to about 6 I was feeling good, nice steady breathing and kept a good pace. Around 6-7 my knee started to act up on me again but I made it to the end. Ended up with about a 10.5 min. mile - not too bad. This is a picture of me at the water stop which was at mile 4. I look kind of prissy for some reason but I swear it was just trying to down as much water as I could-haha. Anyways, good times..I should probably get back to work now :) Will post more soon - first track workout tomorrow 9/9 which is really where I want to be on my BIRTHDAY!! (yes, that was sarcasm)

Oh my god the hills!!

So part of our wonderful training (no, that's not sarcasm ;) is to train to run on different kinds of terrain since a lot of my teammates are running the Nike womens marathon in San Francisco. Well thank you to the genius who built San Francisco on a set of mountains! Ok maybe not mountains but..big hills regardless. So for our Tuesday hill workout on 9/2/08 we went out to a very hill-y area in Walnut Creek to practice. I can't really describe the workout other than saying after a very exhausting warm up - I thought my lungs were going to burst when I got to the top of the big hill. I was glad to find that I wasn't the only one panting like a 20 year old dog on a hot summer day :) All I have to say is...I'm kind of glad I didn't pick the San Francisco marathon - haha. Just kidding - everyone who's participating is going to dominate those hills. Plus I have some hills to worry about myself, anyone ever hear of Diamond peak in Honolulu?? Yeah I have, not so cool. Will post pictures of the hill workout when I get them - for tonight it'll be a nice 40 minute run in the 97 degree heat! Actually, while I'm thinking about it, better go get me some H2O!!!

My first blog!!

Ok, I know I am a bit behind for this since it is September 2nd and I started training at the beginning of August..but what can I say, I'm technologically inept and a huge procrastinator. But better late than never is what I always say :) Also the keyboard I'm using has some kind of communication problem with this computer because it misses almost every third letter I type so bear with me if you find a lot of mis-spelled words. So to get down to it. I really wanted to start this blog because I wanted everyone to be able to see what's going on as far as this training thing goes. It will be especially helpful for the Michiganders out there who might doubt the fact that I'm even running - haha :) Also because I can at least try to convey what an amazing cause this really is and how it effects different people. So the team I am training with is called Team in Training. This organization works directly with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to raise funds for research and patients dealing with leukemia, lymphoma, hodgkins disease and myeloma. The team will provide me with coached runs, lots and lots of helpful information and clinics on running and how to prepare and also a team!! Since we're already a month in...I've met most of the people on our team and have found every one of them a true inspiration about how much good there is out there. So I will try to keep up on this blog with updates on runs, distances, if I'm still alive or not ;) and how close I am to my fundraising goal. I hope everyone checks in on me often!!! Will blog more soon.