Running With Your Heart

Since we helped our friend Ayush train for his first marathon, we ran a lot of long runs with him this spring into early summer. The first week after his race, I brought a fresh pair of running shoes. I kept the same Brooks Glycerin model and the only thing I wanted was a non-black upper. I noticed the black feels too hot in full sun. My new shoes are a nice coral color. A fresh pair of running shoes remind you of the clouds they are! We signed up for a half marathon in October and I want to do a few 5k-races this fall season; I am training!

That first week after his marathon, I went to yoga, ran a speedwork session (which felt so good to run hard again), rode the bike, went to fitness class, and volunteered at the charity garden (which is 2-3 hours of cardio exercise!). It was a full week that felt great. But that return was too good to be true. This summer I felt plagued by minor injuries.

First up, I had hurt my foot. This time, I attributed it my bad habit of ‘cracking ankles.’ You know how you roll your wrists or crack your finger knuckles? Similarly, I would roll my foot, just in a habit. Well, one roll was too much and I think this is what caused my foot to hurt with every step. Even when not running… that’s when I knew, “uh oh.” Immediately, I took it easy: elevated, iced, took anti-inflammatory medicine. It sure felt more like a bone issue than one that could be resolved by my leg strengthening exercises for muscles.

I went to hot yoga class even though my foot was not back to 100%. In class, I did the right-legged single balancing poses with both feet on the ground. I skipped fitness class. After a week, it was the Fourth of July weekend. That Friday we went for a run at the metropark. I wanted to do a short run of three-ish miles. This was the first or second run back after Ayush’s marathon, so easy and gentle was the goal for him and I. On a right turn on the path, my right foot must have felt that turn and weight. Bummer! I finished the run and let my husband do a second loop. I got the bikes out the truck bed and waited for him to finish. We rode our bikes on the pathway and this was trouble-free so long as I didn’t do any ‘power-pedaling.’

Okay, so I took another full week off from running. I went to yoga, skipping to right-leg balancing poses along with the poses in which one grabs their foot and pull.

I went to fitness class but I adjusted the intensity for me. That’s one reason I love this instructor; she offers modifications for Every. Single. Move. So instead of jumping in the jumping jacks, she shows you how to side-step in jack. While I can make up a modification with my fitness history, I love that she does this for people who wouldn’t know how to modify because maybe they never exercised much in their life.

By Saturday, my foot had not hurt in days. I ran three miles at a gentle pace and was mindful on any of the pathway turns. It was perfect! I felt that I was back!!

Four days later, I ran again, only to quickly stop and walk. This time, my right knee felt fishy and had changed my gait. What is up with these issues?! I’m getting older, sure…? It’s not great because we had two upcoming trips where the primary objective is hiking. Instead of running, I walked a few times on the treadmill with an incline and wearing my weighted vest. At least twice I walked up and down the basement steps with the weighted vest – it is not enough to prepare you for the downhill of mountains out west, but it was something! I also went to my to weekly hot yoga and my once-a-week strength and tone fitness class.

In late July, we took our 8-day trip to the state of Washington. Our first stop was Leavenworth. My husband and brother-in-law hiked the Enchantments Traverse. I skipped this one-way, ~23-mile and 7-10,000 ft of elevation gain and 5-7,000 ft of elevation loss hike. I was all-in up until July when these injuries popped up and I read more reviews of the trail: rocks and wayfinding? Forget it! Instead, I spent the day in the cute Bavarian-themed town of Leavenworth. It is a very nice area with other hiking options so don’t think this one big hike is the only thing here to do! Not true!

Next, we went to North Cascades National Park for two full days of hiking. The first day, the primary hike was Heather-Maple Pass Loop.

The second day, the hike was Cascade Pass and Sahale Arm, an out-and-back. The first three miles was a constant but gradual uphill in cedar trees that was fairly easy, if not a mental slough. Once you got pass that, the views were stunning, like all the earlier hikes. It was the downhill over some rocky terrain that I think caused my knee/IT band to flare up. Ibuprofen medicine was used, haha.

We had a travel-rest day to Tacoma and the zoo. We explored Defiance Point Park and even though it was a rest day – still walked 7 miles. My knee hurt on the downhill portions at the park.

Then we had two days at Mount Rainier National Park. Another stunning place. The first day was spent at Paradise area and our main hike was the Skyline Trail with Paradise Glacier spur. We started very early and the area was crowded. The trail was fairly moderate in difficulty and I was surprised at the number of people on the trail. By the end of this hike, I wanted more ibuprofen. I needed to persevere. If this was happening at home, I wouldn’t have pushed myself. This was vacation, though!

The next day we went to Sunrise area of the park and hiked the Burroughs Mountain Trail, an out-and-back. This was easy-moderate in difficulty. It was mostly even terrain, which I love! But as the trail goes up and down and repeats to the third borough, it was long steady sections. It felt like a slough at times. The scenery reminded me of Haleakalā NP in Hawaii.

Our last full day was in Seattle. We started with exploring Pikes Place Market and walking along the waterfront. It’s the little things: you can see jelly fish from shore! Maybe we were trekking too fast but then my knee started to hurt even on flat surface! Ugh! We went to the Aquarium buildings before taking a one-hour bay boat tour. This was one of the best parts of the day. It was very cool to see the city skyline and the shipping cranes. The next day we headed home! We got very lucky avoiding wildfire smoke during our trip. As soon as we were home, the social media pages for the parks posted current visibility – horrible!

When we got back, I needed to let my body heal. We also had our next trip in a eight days. No chance I wanted to risk a run. Instead, I went to yoga and strength and tone class. We flew out Tuesday night to Boise, Idaho. Wednesday, we headed to the little town of Stanley, Idaho. We camped at Pettit Lake.

The next day, Thursday, we hiked at Red Fish area on Alpine Way to Thompson peak. The boys had started earlier with the intent to make it to the top of the mountain (they made it!). We started later after we packed up camp and at a certain point, the trail became too sketchy, rocky for me and my gut had us stop and turn around. We never planned to make it the mountain but to the no-name lake. We didn’t make it there! We went back to town, had huckleberry ice cream, the smokey air cleared up, and stayed at Sawtooth Hotel. We had a great dinner and a hot shower!

The next day, we went back to Pettit Lake area and started our backpacking trip! This was my husband and I’s first-time backpacking!! I learned how to send the course to my Garmin watch, which can indicate when we go off trail, like taking a spur to a scenic lake view point. We were on the Alice-Toxaway Loop, going around counter-clockwise for a steady ascent with a steeper descent. I definitely believe I perform better on steady or gradual inclines. We hiked about 8 miles the first day to Toxaway Lake and camped at ~8,000 feet! I only felt my knee act up a little bit.

We had fun here: my husband and friend did a spur trail up sand mountain, the other guy fished and caught brook trout to complement our freeze-dried dinners, and my friend and I played a few rounds of Yahtzee! At camp I learned how to stop the watch and Pause the Activity to resume it on the next day. Neat!

The next day, we started with a big (~1,000 ft) ascent to the mountain pass and the rest would be downhill.

The view was quite nice but windy up there!

Then, almost as soon as we started the descent down the other side, it started raining/hailing. We put our rain ponchos on quick! A little bit further and we could hear thunder rumbling. This is where I started to get scared. I am not a fan of thunder/lightning, even inside houses, haha. My gut told me to keep moving. Some hiking groups were stopped under dense trees to wait it out. The clouds were gray in the distance as far as we could see and it looked like no sign of stopping. We powered through as best we could with our packs. I felt so stressed and ‘strung out’ from the storm.

When we had about 2-3 miles to go, we were mostly down the mountain and the storm and rain stopped. The sun came out! We had hiked 20-miles on this trail. We headed back to their house in Boise and ordered pizzas which included fun Indian pizza flavors.

Backpacking was a hobby I never wanted to get into because of how many more doors to trails it would open… but, I admit that it was a lot of fun. I would do it again!

We flew home on Sunday, getting in late at night. On Monday, I was exhausted! I skipped hot yoga class. Tuesday, I set out for a run, feeling great! Wednesday, I was back at Strength and Tone class, Thursday I went for a bike ride with a coworker, Friday was a rest day, and Saturday I was back at the charity garden for cardio-volunteering session! Sunday was a long run of 6-miles.

I am now back in a routine! I’m foam rolling, attending hot yoga and strength & tone classes once a week, adding in speedwork runs, and signing up for races!