Smug Marrieds: Retraining

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The North Carolina Marathon was this past Saturday and I celebrated not having to run it by working one of the water stops with my Saturday running group, the Blueliners. 

The race started at 8 am. We had to be at our water stop by 7:30 to set up and the location was about 50 minutes from my house, which is a long way of saying that I had Blair wake me up at 5:30 a.m.  

I'd stayed up later than usual the night before and I was not shaking off sleep easily. I love being in bed in the morning when you're buried under the covers and have made a little nest for yourself out of your body heat and your pillow is so soft...

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Mom Diaries: The Mothership Is Calling

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I dropped my car off for an oil change today and called my mom to come pick me up while the car was being serviced. As I slid into her passenger seat, I remarked that it smelled really good in her car. 

"Oh, it's that thing," she said pointing to a deodorizer clipped to the passenger seat visor. 

I was surprised, as I'm not usually a fan of any fake scent smelling product. (Glade plug-ins are evil and should be destroyed.) "Where'd you get it?" I asked. 

"From the mothership," she said. At my quizzical glance she added, "Bath & Body Works."

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Wake Forest TRAILS Study

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I spent yesterday afternoon in the basement of the Runners Clinic at  Reynolds Gymnasium at Wake Forest University, covered in sensors and belted into sci-fi like moving chairs. Why? I've been selected (i.e., my name was drawn from a hat) to participate in The Runners and Injury Longitudinal Study, or TRAILS study. 
Contrary to what the acronym sounds like, there is no trail running involved. Instead:
Researchers at Wake Forest are using a $600,000 grant from the U.S. Army to try to determine the  difference between runners who become injured and those who stay injury-free. 

According to the university, running injuries are important to the U.S. Army because medical disability discharge rates have increased more than 600 percent in 25 years. Many of those discharges are caused by knee pain and other running-related injuries, such as medial tibial stress syndrome (shin splints), plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinitis. (- Eddie Wooten, News & Record blog, April 15, 2011)

Photo from News & RecordThe study is testing running gait, flexibility and knee and ankle strength, so I spent a lot of time yesterday on a machine that had me pushing and pulling at the knee and ankle. The hard part (for Miss Control Freak here) is that there was nothing to judge against. It's not like at the gym where you can see how much weight you're lifting. In fact, the machine didn't even move on some of the tests. Instead, I was told that it would feel like I was pushing against a brick wall and to just push as hard as I could. So I had no idea if I was doing fair, well, outstanding, etc. Torture. ;)
I go back next Monday for a gait analysis. They'll hook me up to sensors and put me on their indoor running track that you see in the photo to the right. Height, weight and hip strength will also be measured. (Thank heavens I finally lost that cursed 7 lbs. Dropped the last of it right before the marathon. Let's hope it stays gone.) 
After next Monday, I have to notify the staff of my injury status via e-mail every 2 weeks, injured or not. I also go back for 6 and 12 month follow-up visits or, if I'm injured during that time, they'll bring me in for assessment with the study's physician. I may be in the study for as long as two years. 
They kind of expect runners on the study to become injured but I hope to prove them wrong. I'm a big believer in the low mileage/high intensity workout. Even during marathon training, I never went above 30 miles a week and most weeks I was right around 23-24 miles. Now that marathon season is over, I'll probably hang out in the 20-miles/ week range and try to add in more weight/yoga training. 
Cheers,
Dena 

Smug Marrieds: The Revenge of Blair

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I was lying in bed yesterday morning as Blair got ready for work.

"Saw your post on the wrinkle creme," said Blair. "Funny stuff."

"I'm not the funny one. You're the funny one," I said. "I just record this stuff."

"I'm thinking I should start a blog of my own," he said. 

"Nooooooo!" I wailed, sitting up in bed. "I'll change. I'll be good. Don't out me. Please. Please." 

Blair grinned. 

"Fine," I said, lying back against the pillows. "Just what is this blog of yours going to be about?"

"I'm thinking of calling it 'Walking Through Landmines,'" said Blair. "Subtitle: "How to survive being married to a woman." 

"Congratulations my friend," I said. "You just made the blog again."

Hang tight, people. This could turn ugly. 

Cheers,

Dena