‘Cause sometimes you feel tired, feel weak,
and when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up.
But you gotta search within you, you gotta find that inner strength
and just pull that shit out of you and get that motivation to not give up and not be a quitter,
no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse.
- eminem

Although my running-related blog entries have been on the light side, I’m still faithfully chugging along. I did encounter a few unexpected challenges this week, however…..

Of fuel: When I started running with Power in Motion last year, one of the first things I did was get my hands on every running-related source of information I could. (Those who know me best recognize this as part of my obsessive-compulsive nature. hee). One particularly interesting topic was the role of nutrition in exercise and running…..specifically, what types of food maximize performance, the composition of an ideal diet, blah blah. Lots of conflicting information and theories out there, but I quickly got the basics down. Not too complicated. Well, as this past week proved, being cognitively aware of certain health behaviors doesn’t always translate into action.

In other words, I learned a good lesson about not eating crap before a run.

Since I’ve started my marathon training, I’ve made some healthy tweaks to my diet. More carbs, veggies, fruit. Yum. And, after much trial and error, I’ve discovered that for me, my best runs come after a breakfast of:

1 slice of whole wheat bread with peanut butter
1 banana
bowl of Total cereal with fat free milk (Lactose-free, natch)
1 cup coffee

Well, on Wednesday I had run out of bread and cereal, so I opted for an Eggs Mexicana combo from Taco Cabana (the Tex-Mex version of McDonalds). Eggs Mexicana contains refried beans, scrambled eggs, melted cheese-like food, 2 tortillas, 2 bacon strips and coffee. I nibbled on this all day. At 5:30pm, I went to the gym for a scheduled 45 minute run, but had to stop after 30 minutes. I felt like crap, and my stomach wasn’t happy at all. So, on the way home I stopped by the store to replenish my stash. By Thursday evening, I was feeling 100% better and the run was excellent. Amazing how far good nutrition goes.

Eggs Mexicana, never again.

Weak Ankles: The Saturday morning group run was 6 miles from Memorial, to River Oaks, and back. As I started mile 4, I started to feel pain in my left knee….and the pain traveled around my calf, through my achilles and finally to the arch of my foot. Not good. After the run, I stopped by the TreeDoctors - volunteer doctors who check out running-related aches/pains each week for HoustonFit members (an excellent resource). As it turns out, my leg pain was caused by an uneven running form because of a weak left ankle. The TreeDoctors recommended some ankle and leg exercises for the week. Otherwise, they said, I might need to get some orthotics. boo.

I’m still feeling pain in my leg during my runs, but I also haven’t been very consistent with the leg strengthening exercises (oops!). hee.

Racing with bloggers: escapevelocity has attained semi-celebrity status once again! The August issue of Stridelines, the monthly newsletter of the Houston Striders running group, has an article titled “Blogging in Houston” by Jon Walk. Jon talks about the wonderful world of blogging, lists the Houston area running blogs, and even includes an excerpt from a past escapevelocity entry. Jon’s also organizing the first Houston Blogger’s 5K on August 27 th. Yay!

…and getting married: No, no, not me. The Sis. On Thursday, The Sis and her bf of 8 years announced their engagement. He proposed to her at the top of a waterfall during a vacation to Sequoia National Park. Talk about romantic. Anyways, I’m super happy for her.