View from 4th of July Dock Party. LOVE this city
Tenley dog (See #7) in lots of SNOW
2. Travel I LOVE to travel. I have friends all over the country and feel so fortunate I am able to visit them. Thank you United for overbooking two of my flights this year so I could take you up on $400 travel vouchers.
2011 trips: Phoenix, Sun Valley, Las Vegas, Phoenix (again), Washington, DC, (twice), New York City--Hamptons (twice), San Francisco, Atlanta, Jersey Shore (oh and don't worry, I hit up NYC for a third time). For the remainder, I have a trip to Atlanta and a trip to NYC scheduled.
Spring Training--don't mind if I do :)
3. Running LOVE. I love to run. I have run since I was 14, and I was training for the high school cross country team. And I didn't stop. I started because I wanted to stay in shape for basketball and soccer. I liked it so much that I played basketball and then gave up soccer (which was a huge part of my life). I ran in college at American University. I learned TONS from my coach, although I truly think it took me a few years post college to absorb it. I got injured my senior year and took a lot of time off. I would run intermittently to stay in shape or when I was traveling for my post-college job, but it took almost 3 full years for me to start "training again". Chicago's "Shamrock Shuffle 8k"--the unofficial start of Spring 2007 was my first race back. AND I didn't stop until May 2011.
4. May 2011. Injuries Stink. I have always been relatively injury free. I have weak hips like most female runners, so I'd get an occasional hamstring pull, etc. My college running stopped because of a hip injury so I a semi-conscious of not irritating that hip. I had an ambitious racing schedule this year--chicago and new york city marathon. (along with a few triathlons). I had picked up training and felt tightness in my stride and hip flexor, but ran through my tempo run. The next day, I ran to my yoga class, but I couldn't. I talked to my favorite yogi-Kira--told her I had pain in the WRONG hip. I had to stop and walk. I don't EVER have to stop to walk. The pain was super intense. I called my friend-runner-physical therapist freaking out. She told me hip flexor strain, etc. See #5--Labral Tears
5. Labral Tears. webMD. You sort of pulled through for me this time. I googled and read and rested. I didn't run for a week, two weeks and the pain was still there. That would be the point that I freaked out; two weeks off from running and it still hurt to sit up in bed, to step out of bed and to sit for long periods of time. Self-diagnosis made, labral tear. Time to pick a doctor who specializes in this. I sought recommendations for a good doctor and made an appointment with him. MRI confirmed the labral tear. But all was not lost, I could run, but pain was my guide. Um, yeah, that pain wasn't going away. 8 weeks of PT and surgery was scheduled because no progress had been made. (My resting pain had left me at this time, but my hip still wasn't having any running). September 1st. First Surgery of My life. (Longer post about this at some point). But all went well!
6. TRY-athlete. I'm a runner, and dabble in TRI's sometimes, when I can get over my fear of biking. If you look at my 2009 Chicago Sprint Tri splits, swimming top 1/3, bike bottom 1/4, and running, 20th place (overall)--should probably work on that middle part. I think I was in the wrong gear. No idea. I welcome any and all biking tips! It is a HUGE fear. I know the lakefront path is not the best place for me to bike clipped in on my super speedy cervelo, but I seriously grip the bike for my life. Dream is to do an Ironman. The original dream had me doing an ironman in 2012, but with the labral tear. Leah v.2.0., will be doing an ironman at a future date yet to be determined.
7. Tenley. I'll probably refer to this one a lot. She's my puppy--meaning she's one and a half years old. I adopted her from a rescue group when she was 12 weeks old and I fully admit she is super spoiled. Her name comes from Tenleytown in DC where I spent my college years at American University. (Or as some people like to say after the Tenley named liquor at the liquor store).
8. Sports addict: I am a diehard Packers fan. I travel for games. I am obnoxious. I like the Cubs, but they have been really boring since I moved here. Step it up Cubbies! But mainly, take me to a sports event and I will be happy. Seats in the 100 section, even better.
9. I'm a blogger (WHAT?!)--never in my life did I think I'd type those words. I blame Lizzy and Meg and Miss Stef aka Gansie--who has blogging for YEARS. But my family and my friends are the most important people in my life and most of them don't live in Chicago. I think this may be the best way for them to keep up with my recovery, my training and my life
Hooray! I love your first post and I love that I am partially to blame for this!
ReplyDelete