Going With The Flow

So I've been running for 10 years now, and I have never hurt in my knees. I am so glad. But after having my stride analyzed they said it was mostly due to the fact that I land square under my hips. So thank you hips!

I just read your Q&A. Loved it! Best part of my morning. I am so glad to know you. You are a source of strength to me in your words at times. Just thought I should let you know that :)

I agree with Lily! You are such a great resource and I love that you are always sharing great information and experience.

Only 6.5 hrs of sleep? You also win best girlfriend for waiting up for Jake. :)

I was wondering why there was so little sleep going on!

Here is something to add to what you heard on the radio yesterday (I heard it on the 5 am news): it is one of the most worthless days for wok, like you said, and employees tend to spend double the amount of time online goofing off just to stay awake. I think that means we should all get that day off.

Andrea was kind enough to come pick me up @ midnight!

i think i found the cocktail you need to try (or avoid?) in brazil: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caipirinha

also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coxinha

and: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feijoada

I figured it was some sort of sugar cane drink... it probably tastes delicious but as someone who has seen Andrea after she has taken 3 sips out of a fruity drink, it would kill her :-)

I thought of you when I posted on my blog today Andrea. You have had a few injuries-- seemingly unrelated. I would suggest you get your ferritin (iron) level checked. Strangely I had this weird knee pain for the past 1 1/2. Never had it before. It almost took me out in my 20 miler with Rachelle and then it just kept nagging me. It was at the side of my knee cap (patellar region) and ricocheted up my leg. Low iron???? Truly think so. The puzzle piece fits. You run hard and fast and you are thin and probably don't eat enough lean red meat because you watch your cals too closely. AND you eat a lot of ice cream (from what I can tell from your blog) which actually blocks the absorption of any iron containing foods you do eat. Just looking out for you. Nurses are great at being nurses--- NOT patients :D. I was actually doing a study on myself. Apparently self studies back fire at the wrong time.

btw the article is very thorough and most likely terribly accurate however our muscles are injured from lack of oxygen as well if we are anemic which throws everything off balance.

How the heck is my iron so high? Maybe Kroger/Dreyers is lacing their ice cream w/ iron? :-)

Allie - Caipirinha sounds delicious, sugar cane rum?!...I should stay very far away! I'll ask Rafaela if she'll take me to get your recommendations :)

Julie - I'm going to get my iron tested at the doctor today, so good timing! I was actually just talking this morning about how I'm feeling overly tired so I am interested to see what the labs come back like. Although I HATE needles.

Jake, it is the timing of the ice cream. You should take iron at least an hour away from eating ice cream maybe longer. Depends on how well you absorb iron. Apparently you absorb it well!! : D. Oh and drink orange juice with iron for better absorption. Okay now think of how high yours could be off ice cream!! ; D. and you probably know this but women are for more at risk for low iron. Especially running women. We are always watching our intake too closely. If we don't run as much we drastically cut calories to stay trim. Which is a vicious cycle. I am much better than I was. I eat now when I don't run. But younger runners are still too OCD.

JulieC - are you implying that I'm OCD?! :o) I will admit that it has been hard to be okay with gaining some weight after the marathon. But I've gotten a lot better than I used to be! It's a tough balance and I'm still trying to figure out what is the best with down time and then hard training. I know I have been slacking on eating red meat recently and am also worried about the next few weeks that I'm in Brazil with food and proper nutrition. We'll see what happens.

my brazilian food suggestions are highly nutritious. kind of.

i've talked about this before, but i think it's good to have a bit of extra weight on you when you aren't in the middle of a big training cycle. i was very OCD about calorie intake a few years ago (basically never fluctuated from my goal race weight), but i have since relaxed a bit more as i've realized how important good nutrition and properly fueling the body are when you run a lot. i put on 10 lbs. over the winter as an experiment (not easy!), and i think the extra muscle mass (ha!) and a bit higher body fat % helped me through the big mileage weeks, when in the past that kind of training has caused royal breakdowns for me (i understand that it could just be a coincidence, but i'm pretty convinced this was helpful for me). it's definitely tricky to balance, but a bit of weight gain in the off season is totally fine -- it all falls off in the super fit stage before a race anyway. i'm still waiting for that to happen to me. ;)

Hmmm....my wight never falls off. I will blame it on Jake's iron culprit (that darn Kroger ice cream!)

MOST runners are OCD Andrea. : D. Been there, still do THAT. ; D. just so you know my PF is excruciating. I can't believe how it just switched feet so abruptly and WAY more pronounces. TENNIS ball exercises are a lot like delivering a baby all natural. what the heck??? I figure all this pain is gonna take me somewhere in Boston...like it should feel eazzzy breezzy or something once I am all fine tuned.