Quick Update

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of blog post recently. It turns out that being a full time college and training for a marathon takes up a lot of my life that would normally be free. Today's post is just a quick little update and reminder that I'm still alive. I have an Olympic inspired workout heading your way sometime this week.

Speaking of the Olympics, what did everyone think? Personally, the Olympics are my favorite time of year, that is, during the years that they actually happen. I'll go more into that in my next post. For now I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't actually fallen off the face of the earth. Marathon training is going well and is SUPER fun. Today was actually the first run that felt like a chore, but that's probably just because I'm running on stress and a lack of sleep...oops! But hey, that's college for ya.

To everyone who is going the mid-term season right now, keep on hanging on. You can do it! Just think, it's midterms and then you're pretty darn close to spring break. Yippee!! Is anyone doing anything special for spring break? I know it's weird to think about that coming so soon when there's still snow on the ground. Bleh.

Well, until next time, just keep swimming (or ice skating, at this point).

Rock Climbing and Injury Prevention

Hello again! I had a pretty awesome weekend, what with the Olympics starting and going rock climbing and all. How was your weekend?

So, I'm pretty sure I've talked about rock climbing on the blog before. I love it. So much! At first, making it all the way up a wall can seem a little daunting, but if you don't look down and if you tell yourself to not think about how high you are off the ground, it is so fun! I have a membership at a local climbing gym, Upper Limits, and the majority of the walls at the gym are in silos! It is so cool! I've been working on improving my upper body strength while simultaneously enhancing my strategy skills as I climb. The bottom line is, rock climbing is a super duper fun activity and while it is really difficult, it is so rewarding when you finish a wall. I climbed this weekend and introduced a couple of friends to the sport. We had a pretty great time and even tried some bouldering (low-wall climbing without ropes).

Getting my climb on!

I also had another long run this weekend in preparation for my marathon! Yesterday's run was a treacherous 8 miles in over a half a foot of snow. Yes, I am used to having more snow around than that, but I usually don't have to run in it. Usually people do that thing where they clear the snow off their part of the sidewalk. What's that called again? Oh yeah, shoveling! Well, apparently the good people of central Illinois didn't get the memo, so I got to run 8 miles in this:

The snow went up to my mid-calf!

But, as I've said before, winter running is my favorite! Part of what I like about it, is the challenge of running in difficult conditions, so as inconvenient as it was to run in nine or more inches of snow, it was so fun! And I felt great (and exhausted) afterwards!

In other news, Valentine's day is coming up! Is everyone excited? I don't really care about Valentine's day or anything, but I know that lots of people like it, and if you have a significant other, or even if you don't, Valentine's day is one of those days that we like to use as an excuse to buy (and eat) a lot of chocolate. Now, normally I wouldn't use this blog as a way to promote any sort of political agenda, BUT today is an exception. 

Many chocolate products contain palm oil, which is contributing to the decreasing population of orangutans. In order to grow the plant that produces palm oil, companies are cutting down lots of trees and destroying orangutan habitats. Rainforest Action Network has gone around and talked to many of the big name chocolate brands and tried to persuade them to stop including palm oil in their products. Most of these chocolate companies have agreed to start processing palm oil out of their products and to at least put labels on those products that do contain conflict palm oil. 

Yep, unfortunately even Lindt chocolates contain conflict palm oil.

Now, I don't claim to be any expert on the subject, but if this interests you and you want to get involved in the fight against palm oil and deforestation, visit ran.org to find out more about their Last Stand of the Orangutan campaign and how you can get involved.

....Aaaaaaaaaannddd rant done. For this week's marathon something-or-other installment, I wanted to talk a little bit about injury prevention. I have been prone to knee injuries ever since I sprained my meniscus playing soccer in high school, and my knee pains especially act up when I run A) high mileage, and B) consistently. Since I will be running both high mileage and running consistently in order to train for my first ever marathon, I am pretty nervous about my recurring knee problems flaring up again. I also am hoping to avoid shin splints for as long as humanly possible. I could go on for days about the different ways to prevent injuries and all that jazz, but today I'm just going to give you guys my simple routine that I do at least three times a week. 

When I ran cross country in high school, my coach was really big on avoiding and treating injuries. As part of our injury prevention routine, he had us do a lot of exercises that engaged the glutes, which running doesn't really do, and increased the flexibility, strength and range of motion in the hips. I've started to incorporate these moves into my post-run exercises three to four times a week. I usually do the following routine on workout run days (tempos, hills, fartleks, etc.) and long run days.

 In order to prevent muscle tearing, you should doa dynamic warm-up before every workout, so that you're not going into a super intense workout or run with cold muscles. Lunge matrix and Myrtle should be done on alternating days and I usually pair the push-ups and abs with myrtle. Always make sure to stretch well after your workouts, too, but I probably don't need to tell you guys that.

Another way to prevent injuries like shin splints and various knee problems, is to ice, ice, ice! And heat! Immediately after my long runs, I fill up a mid-thigh-high trash bucket with ice and freezing cold water, and I stand in it for 10-15 minutes. I do this once or twice a week, depending on how much time I have during the week and how sore I am after a particular run/workout. Once I'm done icing, I wrap a heating pad around my knees and sit with that on for about 20 minutes. So far, *knock on wood*, my routine has helped me avoid any recurring knee pain and shin splints. Gosh, I hope it keeps working!

The heating pad is always rewarding!

P.S. NEVER stay in an ice bath for longer than 20 minutes or else your cells will start to die! (I'm sure there is a much less scary, way more scientific way to explain this, but honestly, that's all I know).

Cheers!