Favorite movies

I don't really have much to say about climbing other than I had my 3 week recheck appointment for my wrist and it looks like it is healing well and there may be two bones broken (pisiform and hamate), but it doesn't really change anything.  I am supposed to wear the cast less and start moving my wrist around some to loosen it up.

With all this PT and riding the trainer I haven't been watching a lot of movies lately.  Nick and I got in a conversation about our favorite movies and decided to write down our top 25 and compare.  These are the movies that you will watch every time they are on tv or maybe you own them watch them over and over.  Here are mine.  I'm not claiming that they are all award winning films, I just like them.

The Color Purple

It was on a few weeks ago and so I had to watch it again.  There are so many things I love about this movie.  Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah are amazing in this movie.  This is one of my favorite scenes.

I cry at the ending every time.

Shawshank Redemption

Another one that I cannot give a specific thing I love about it, but the friendship between Red and Andy is great.  One of my favorites.

The Princess Bride

Such a classic movie.  So many great quotes.

Good Will Hunting

Loved this movie when it came out.  Robin Williams is so good in it.

The Intouchables

A preview of this movie came up when I was watching another movie and I thought it looked interesting.  The chemistry between the two lead actors is amazing and the actor playing the quadriplegic is able to express so much using only his face.

The Family Stone

A great cast.   Humor and drama and some downright uncomfortable situations.  Makes me cry every time I watch it.

Jurassic Park

I loved this book and Steven Spielberg did a great job bringing it to the big screen.  The CGI in this movie was revolutionary.  The first time I saw this scene it blew me away:

Monsters, Inc.

I love love love just about every Pixar movie but this is one of my favorites.  The last scene, come on, so good.

Field of Dreams

This movie hasn't stood the test of time for me as much as some of the others, but I still love it and will watch it if it is on.

Almost Famous

This movie was just on when I was writing this blog and I had to watch it again.

The Lives of Others

Nick wanted to watch this movie and I ended up going to bed about 30 minutes into it.  The next day he told me I had to finish watching it.  It isn't a fast pace movie, but so worth it.

Silence of the Lambs

Such a great scary movie.

Magnolia

A weird movie with an all star cast.  Even Tom Cruise does a good job.  A great soundtrack by Aimee Mann.

Star Wars Trilogy (the original)

How can you pick just one?  I love the old school special effects and the movie trailers!

Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight

Another trilogy.  These movies are just a dialogue between two people.  The ages/life stages of the main characters somewhat mirrored my life.

Aliens

Sigourney Weaver is a bad ass.

The Usual Suspects

A classic.  Love Kevin Spacey

ET

Another classic.

Up

I'm sure it is obvious that I love this movie.  The first 15 minutes are sad but after that it is so entertaining.  Pixar did a great job.

Amelie

Another one that I have posted about on my blog before that I love.  A quirky romantic comedy set in Paris.  How can you go wrong?

Secret Life of Bees

I loved both the movie and the book.  They did a great job with casting the characters.

Other movies I love to watch if they are on: Lethal Weapon, Forrest Gump, Sliding Doors, Legends of the Fall, Beautiful Girls, Die Hard, Singles, Legally Blond, and Remember the Titans (and pretty much any feel good sports movie).

What are yours?

Week 21 and my last 20 miler done!

I was nervous about this week after not doing the second 20 mile run and still being injured.  My plan was to do the best that I could and not overdo it if my body wasn't feeling good.  One thing in my favor for this week was weather in the 60s and maybe in the 50s on Friday night!

I think I can see Lincoln's face to the right
of the road rash.

My friend Splash suggested I rub dirt into my road rash and also use sage for my broken wrist.  I wasn't quite sure if I was supposed to rub the sage on my wrist or eat it so I have just been doing both.  I was a little skeptical of taking advice from a skydiver with the nickname Splash, but it seems to be working.

I woke up Tuesday not feeling as sore as I have other mornings since the crash, but I was still doubting my ability to get through the 10 miles without a lot of suffering and misery.  I eventually convinced myself to get out of bed and give it a try.  Endo and I headed out the door and in the first few miles I was actually feeling great.  On my runs since the accident my body was ready to stop around mile 5, but not today.  I almost was feeling like my pre-accident self.  I finished up 8 miles with Endo and got Charlie for the last 2.  After the run I didn't feel worn down and sore so I started thinking I would be able to do 20 miles on Saturday.  The rest of the day was great because I only had to work a few hours.  President Obama was visiting work and it was going to be a traffic nightmare to leave work if we weren't gone by 1 pm at the latest.

I used the afternoon to address the thank you notes for donors that Mary Moerlins made for me  I just received them yesterday and they are amazing.  Mary does great work!  I can't wait to send them out after the race!  And to make things even better I watched The Fault in Our Stars which just came out that day for rental.  I really loved the book and worried they were going to ruin it but the movie was great!

Endo and a movie

On Wednesday I did a bit of cross-training on the bike.  It tends to get a bit uncomfortable since I can only sit up straight because of the wrist, but oh well.  It can also get boring riding a bike in the garage looking at the wall so I brought my laptop down and watched a movie while riding which made the time go much faster.

Thursday was my last tempo run (60 minutes) which involves slowing increasing pace, running 5 minutes in the middle of the run at 10k race pace, and then decreasing pace again.  I generally aim for somewhere in the 9 minutes/mile area but I haven't gone this fast since the accident.  I ended up doing 9ish minutes/mile for 6 1/2 minutes and my average pace was faster than it was for my 55 minute tempo run four weeks ago.  Not too bad!

Saturday morning wasn't the 59 degrees that was projected earlier in the week, but it was still in the high 60s, breezy, and overcast.  I was well prepared with my Camelbak, pepper spray, and headlamp, but was still nervous about getting chased by animals or humans.  I also get nervous about running on sidewalks where there are trees on both sides because there are these huge spiders that build their webs across the sidewalk and then hang out in the middle.  If I ran into one of them I don't think I would ever recover.  I followed a plan similar to my last 20 miler with 13, 4, and 3 miles.  I was really tired by the end, but I did the run and the only wildlife I saw was a little opossum and I think I could have taken him if he went after me.   So it is all down hill from here on out.  I just need to focus on not falling down the stairs or breaking a toe.

The dogs and I after 20 miles

For all of you out there that were waiting to see if I could actually do the training before you donated...I did (even with a broken wrist)!  Now is your chance to donate to Team Paws  by October 5th on my fundraising page which can be found here and thank you to everyone that has already donated.

Training week 20: recovery and healing

I can't believe it is week 20 and the marathon is less than a month away!!!!!  It hasn't been easy since my bike accident.  I was really down Friday, felt better Saturday, and then hit another low on Sunday.  Nick tried to put things into perspective for me by saying things like "you just crashed 3 days ago, you should be tired" and "it is impressive that you crashed, broke your wrist, and then ran 10 miles 3 days later."  All I could focus on was that I didn't run 20 miles when I was supposed to.  I was also worried that doctor was going to tell me that I wasn't allowed to run the marathon and that really isn't an option for me.  All this worry and there was nothing I could do about it.  In the great words of Frozen, I needed to take all my stress and doubt and just let it go.  Instead of posting a video of the song, let's watch a video of my favorite snowman and reindeer.

Nick took me to my appointment on Monday afternoon.  At first the PA student and doctor told me that they didn't think my wrist was broken but it turned out they were looking at the wrong spot on my radiographs.  Most people break their scaphoid bone but I broke my pisiform.

Sexy!

So the break was confirmed, but the doctor said he was going to give me a removable, waterproof cast and that I could still run the marathon.  My follow-up appointment would be in 3 weeks.  This is all good news.  I am definitely thankful that something worse didn't happen (broken legs, head, or both wrists) and that I can still run.

Waterproof and it shoots lasers out the knob!

Although the broken wrist is annoying, the road rash is far more painful and gets more and more painful as it heals.  A couple of times I have accidentally hit my elbow rash on something and it is excruciating.  Nick has also hit some of my injuries on accident and a few times on purpose.  He is currently sleeping in the chicken coop.

Honestly, I have a new found respect for cyclists that crash, get back on their bikes and keep going.  Sometimes the guys crash again after already having road rash.  I cannot even imagine how painful that would be.  I would probably vomit, pass out, and then cry when I woke up.  Even worse than road rash is what happened to Johnny Hoogerland in the 2011 Tour de France:

He got back on the bike, finished the stage, won the Polka Dot jersey, and continued the next day after getting 33 stitches.  Impressive.  So I didn't fly into a barbed wire fence, but I am still proud of my dedication to this marathon.  I decided to stick to the training schedule for this week and do 8 miles on Tuesday and Thursday and then a 10k on Saturday.  The 8 mile runs went well.  I didn't get chased by any animals, I enjoyed the run, and I ran most of the time (although at a slow pace).  My legs felt pretty worked the last few miles and afterwards.  This healing business is tiring.

Endo is such a thoughtful dog!

As much as I really wanted to increase my mileage on Saturday to make up for the previous weeks fail, I need to give my body a rest.  When I got home from work on Friday night there was evidence that Endo had tried to help me carb load before my Saturday run, but had some issues because the no opposable thumbs problem.  Saturday morning was amazing.  I didn't have to wake up until 6:30 and I only had to run 6.2 miles!!!  I struggled some but could tell my body was getting better.

Besides continuing my running I need to get back to my PT exercises and come up with a new cross training plan since I cannot bike to work or climb anymore.   Luckily we have a bike trainer in the basement so Nick put my bike on it so I could still ride.  There is no way I can climb so I will just stick to sit-ups to work on my core.

The marathon is less than a month away and next week is my last hard week: 10 miles Tuesday, a 60 minute tempo run Thursday, and then 20 miles on Saturday and then two easy weeks.  Hopefully my body is ready, but even if I have to cut back a little I can still do the marathon!

Countdown Widgets

Training weeks 18 and 19

Week 18

This was a "stepback" week after the 20 mile run.  My legs were definitely suffering and felt like jelly for the Tuesday and Thursday runs of 7 miles each.  On the up side the temperatures cooled off after the weekend.

Yummy corn dog

Nick and I headed to the climbing gym after work on Tuesday and then Nick decided we should try out Pallookaville, a restaurant we had never been to.  This is probably not the best place to go if you are watching your diet, but it is delicious!  For dinner I had a corn dog, poutine, and a chocolate milk shake (Nick says this is my "athlete diet").  Good thing I didn't have to run the next morning!

Pallokaville

 By the time the weekend rolled around I was exhausted.  I think all of this training is finally getting to me.  I was ready to go to bed around 6 pm but managed to stay awake until 8 pm.  I wish I had jet lag to blame for this but it was great to go to bed so early.  Despite going to bed so early I was still exhausted when I got up at 5 am.  The temperature and humidity was much better than last weekend and I only had to run 14 miles.  Because I left later the sun was up by the time I headed home on my first loop with Endo.  The down side of this was that I was forced to do speed work because of all the squirrel chasing.

Once the run was over I did the usual: drank gatorade and then chocolate milk followed by an ice bath.  Before I jumped in the bath I put some bacon in the oven to cook.  The smell was killing me while I was in the bath.  This was going through my head on repeat:

After the bath and bacon I did nothing other than laying in bed the rest of the day.  I tried to nap but just couldn't fall asleep.  When evening rolled around I asked Nick where we were going to eat dinner and he suggested that we eat some frozen turkey pot pies.

Seriously?  I ran 14 miles this morning and you want to feed me frozen pot pie?

We ended up going to Taqueria del Sol for some yummy tacos and chili relleno and then back to doing nothing for the rest of the night.  At least Monday was a holiday so I could make up for my wasted day.

Week 19

This week was my highest total miles at 37 (10 + 7 + 20).  Monday was Labor Day so I decided to take advantage of the holiday and move my week day runs up one day.  This meant one less day to wake up super early (still woke up at 6 am) and an extra recovery day before my second 20 mile run.  I am really sick of waking up early, running, heat and humidity.  It is September now, can summer please go away? As much as I do hate waking up and hate it while I am running, I feel great afterwards.

Endo and I did get to witness a nice sunrise and my legs felt much better than my 10 mile run after the Madison half, so not a bad day overall.  Also, the dogs also got some good squirrel chasing in.

Charlie wiped out behind the tree and ended up coming back looking like this:

My 7 mile run went great and I was really looking forward to my 20 mile run until this happened on Thursday on my ride home from work:

Right after the crash I thought that I had lucked out and come away with a bunch of road rash but by the time Nick picked me up both of my wrists hurt (the left one was really bad).  After a shower  we went to urgent care.  The doc at urgent care said my left wrist was broken and to follow up at Emory orthopedic as soon as I could get in, which will not be until Monday.

Ouch

Sleeping Thursday night was challenge because of all the road rash (even with a pain pill).  Friday was filled with misery and self pity (and maybe some crying).

The Grey with Liam Neeson (this movie was awful)

I felt awful and tired and figured there was no way I could do my 20 miler this weekend, but then I got a great night's sleep and felt pretty good on Saturday so I figured I would give it a try on Sunday.  I woke up at 4 am and felt good the first 2 miles and thought that 20 might be doable.  Around that same time we were running by the large fields in front of the elementary school and Endo kept looking toward the field and then I noticed some sort of dog or coyote in the field.  I kept running and turned right at the next road that borders the field and then looked toward where the animal was and it looked like it was running toward us.  My brain went into panic mode and I turned around and head back across the street toward the house of one of our friends.  I looked back toward the field and it looked like the animal changed directions so it was still running toward us.  The house that I was heading to has an elevated front yard so you can only get to the front door up the driveway.  I ran to the front porch and pulled out my pepper spray and just stood there for about 5 minutes and nothing came.  Maybe I was imagining it?  I slowly went down the driveway and didn't see anything so I (nervously) continued on my way.  A few minutes later I spotted the animal down the street behind me so I picked up my pace but it didn't seem to be following me.

At this point I was mentally wrecked, my heart was pounding and I was sweating like crazy.  I kept going but never really recovered and felt lethargic and tired.  Every noise I heard freaked me out.  I was not enjoying my run.  Finally at mile 5 I admitted defeat and turned around and headed toward home.  I ended up doing 10 miles but didn't feel good about it.  I am feeling negative about training and the marathon right now.  I am miserable and doubting myself.  Hopefully I can get a cast tomorrow, get some rest and adjust my attitude.  At least the splint is good for petting puppies.