A Little Rant...

Clearly I have not been posting frequently this past month or so. Partly because this semester has been kicking my butt and also that I have been trying to find other things to occupy my time than training and obsessing over triathlon.

As I mentioned before, I have been struggling with an injury, and this injury is a little more serious than we had originally thought. I have a compression side femoral neck stress fracture. I have been really down about it lately. I don't want to drag out the details of said injury, but let's just say this injury isn't quite doing what we expected of it and has caused more nights of tears than I can count. We had a little potential surgery scare, but we are officially out of the woods on that one.

So, now that that's out of the way... a little positivity for your Sunday morning reading pleasure.

As an athlete with an injury, no matter what sport, being injured sucks. It just sucks. There is no other way to put it. I don't know about you, but when I am injured the last thing that I want to do is associate myself with other people that are doing what I want to be doing so badly, purely out of jealousy. For me, this is running and training for the upcoming season. However, for the majority of us, many of our friends are athletes who are going to continue to live their life (train) even while you are injured.

So now you're stuck, you don't really want to talk about triathlon (or sport that applies) and then you realize that this is like a HUGE commonality between you and friends. Of course you have those friends who are in your classes, coworkers, etc., but the people you've spent the majority of your time with are your training buddies and your training buddies are off training while you hobble around campus on crutches or cry in your room or lay on your bed watching hours of One Tree Hill on Netflix<< yes that happens!

You suddenly have all this free time on the weekends when you are used to going out for long rides/runs. Though you are only actually outside training for a few hours, you realize how large of a chunk of time it is. You have to wake up early, find something to eat and time it perfectly so you aren't sick when you are training but you have enough energy to make it through the session, get home cool down/get warm, stretch, do some 10 minute core, shower, eat, and by the time all is said and done, your  2 hour bike ride has essentially become a 4-5 hour event.

To battle this issue I have been facing with "too much free time" I have discovered that I enjoy a few other things outside of triathlon. For one, I have time to clean my room on the weekends. Like actually clean it, that is so nice. I also have found myself really enjoying music. Not just listening, but like looking online and finding music and bands, old or new. I often just scroll through iTunes "Top 100" so I can find a few new beats to throw on my iPod that I can listen to while I run. Now I actually go through and take the time to search new music. I enjoy it so much and it is something else to put time and energy into while healing up that nasty hip of mine. I also really enjoy sleep a lot. I have been trying to bank 8 hours of sleep a night and am doing a pretty good job with it. I feel lazy for laying around and actually sleeping, but I know my body needs this rest.

So, I guess what I am trying to say is that injuries suck, but we have all been there. Even the best athletes in our sports have suffered potentially career threatening injuries. It is all about the mindset and what you choose to do with this "layoff". I fully believe that there is a period of mourning that coincides with injuries, but it's important to get yourself up and moving. Find something else you like to do that doesn't involve much moving around so you don't reinjure yourself. But find something to pass the time, I am sure I will be up and running before I know it.

Let's go get some shoes

Hey there friends! It has been awhile since I last posted, but here I am. I am back at school and ready for a new semester. I can't believe that this is already the second semester of my junior year. What the heck? This semester will definitely be hard, but I actually have a really good feeling about it :)

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When it comes to running shoes, I am pretty much a Brooks girl.  I usually wear the Ghost model but I really like the PureProject shoes during the race season because they feel a lot lighter than most other running shoes. I have gone through 2 pairs of Brooks PureFlow shoes and absolutely love them, they are almost in between a regular trainer and a race flat. Part of the reason I switched to PureFlow from Ghost is because I wanted to start moving toward minimalist running. Some of you may know that I seem to be prone to stupid injuries [mostly due to muscle imbalances]. I dealt with shin splints throughout high school, some knee issues, suffered a femoral shaft stress fracture last year, and have iffy hips. I know that the idea of this "minimalist running" is a controversial subject; some people seem to believe it is the way to run, while others think that it causes injury.

The reason I bring this up is because I received an awesome pair of shoes in the mail a few days ago.

These shoes are from a company called SKORA Running. These are the Women's Base model. Now, I am not dumb enough to go out for a run in them because it takes time to transition to a truly minimalist type shoe. However, I have been wearing these shoes to the gym to lift and while running errands. I am pleasantly surprised by these shoes. They are super comfortable and light, almost like wearing a sock, but they are grippy! Holy cow, you know how your feet get kind of slippery when you do wall sits on hardwood floors, I did a one legged wall sit with no slippage. It was awesome. I also really love the straps. I think they would be great shoes to eventually race in. No lace tying and they slip on really easily. The other major difference I have found between this shoe and the running shoes I have worn in the past is that I haven't gotten any hot spots. Sometimes I get hot spots even while just walking around, not while I am running. I have not had any hot spots while walking around. And of course, I got the blue because ADPi's colors are blue and white :)

I would definitely recommend trying these shoes out if you are interested in making the switch (or if you already have)! Email me at cgirltri92@gmail.com and I will help you get all set up with these awesome shoes and company. The people at SKORA will definitely take care of you!