Category Archives: injuries

May 7, 2013

Monday Night in Brooklyn & About that Hip Flexor

Last night Karl and I decided to go on a Monday night date night plus a nice walk around our neighborhood since life is just way better now that the weather rocks.

Love the cobblestone strrets in BK.

Love the cobblestone strrets in BK.

We took the long way through DUMBO and around to the Brooklyn Bridge Park where we eventually decided on getting pizza at Juliana’s on Old Fulton Street. But not before a brief modeling session, which Karl is used to by now. I love documenting ever single thing (hey, I’m a blogger :) . Anddd this is my attempt at being trendy while posing on a wall…

Brick walls ARE Brooklyn.

Brick walls ARE Brooklyn.

Hello most delicious pizza ever!

Hello most delicious pizza ever!

Most people don’t realize this is the original Grimaldi’s pizza location (with the original coal oven) and that this one is actually owned/run by the actual Grimaldi family. If you want to meet them, Patsy and his wife are usually there working and are super friendly. Patsy even made a point to chat with us for a bit while we were there and gave us espresso on the house! LOVE them, plus their pizza rocks like none other.

Espresso from Patsy Grimaldi!

Espresso from Patsy Grimaldi!

After pizza we headed for my very first ice cream of the season from the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. I always get double chocolate chunk in a cup.. its my signature and its delicious. While we ate we sat and watched the boats go under the bridges in the East River, at sunset. You couldn’t ask for much more than that!

Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. This is what summer is for!

Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. This is what summer is for!

This lovely evening helped a bunch to distract me from my most recent injury. Yes, you read that right. Let me back up a bit.

What happened is this: I ran 8 miles on Saturday. I felt great at the time. But unfortunately ever since that run I’ve had pretty bad pain in my left hip flexor. It has been improving slowly over the past few days but hurts a ton in the morning, after getting up from sitting for a while, and once in a while during walking (was hurting all the time during walking). I seriously have no luck.. I’m always injured!

At this point, I am unsure if I’ll be able to run the upcoming Brooklyn Half like I planned, which is really bumming me out. I had my heart set on it, and I absolutely hate missing races. Crossing my fingers this will clear up but honestly I don’t have a great feeling about it. What do you guys think? Ever had anything like this before?

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Don’t forget to enter my giveaway for an awesome Vega Prize Pack! You can win THREE boxes of Vega One Bars by entering here.

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Do you have any injuries? Tips for hip flexor problems?
Have you ever missed a big race because of injury?

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January 3, 2013

2013 New Years Resolutions

Giveaway Update: Giveaway ends Sunday at 11:59pm EST for the awesome Tough Chik Military Cap! Enter now!

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Since I actually didn’t set any goals or resolutions for 2012, I have none to recap here. Because of that we are skipping right to my 2013 New Years Resolutions! I can’t say I’ve ever really stuck to any that I’ve set in the past but now that I have this blog I’m hoping it will help keep me motivated and accountable. Plus I have some pretty good resolutions/goals for this year.. Its going to be a great one! 13 resolutions in 2013!!

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Before I get into it, I want to give you an injury update. I saw my doc yesterday and he said my leg pain is NOT a stress fracture. CELEBRATION! SO relieved about that. But he did say I have biomechanical issues with my patella, specifically the groove is not deep enough and the patella glides laterally when I extend my knee. This puts me at risk for injuries like ITBS and other leg/knee issues. What I have to do to reduce the risk of these is to get my legs really strong and do lower body strengthening. Which leads me to my first resolution…

1. Perform strength training/cross training regularly. If I want to keep running, this is a HUGE one otherwise I’ll just keep ending up injured.
2. Run a sub-2:00 half marathon. This goal had been on my radar but was put on hold due to injuries. But I want so bad to achieve this.
3. ***Train for and complete the 2013 NYCM***. I have no time goal here, I just want to train for this without getting injured and finish. This is my dream race and my main goal for this year, I can’t wait!

4. Complete at least one cycling event and/or duathlon: I really enjoyed the SI Duathlon in 2012 and want to get more into cycling in general. Plus I actually want to train a bit for my next one :)
5. Be consistent with spin and fitness classes and try as many new ones as possible.
6. Do a 7 minute plank. Why 7 minutes? I’m not sure but it seems like a good goal.
7. Run a really unique or scenic race. Lots of options here for this, it can either be an adventure race or something like the Electric Run. Anything cool counts! Suggestions?
8. Sign up for the 2014 Chicago marathon or an international race. This is really if all goes well with NYCM training. I’ve always wanted to go to Chicago (hot dogs, pizza, running.. what could be better?)
9. Learn to budget better and be more organized with important stuff.
10. Eat mostly clean, nonprocessed food.
11. Go hiking in the spring and fall and go to the beach in the summer.
12. Switch my blog to self-hosted. No idea how to go about this at all.
13. Cook more and try new recipes.

There you have it.. my 13 in 2013! Hoping to keep all these resolutions and I have a year to achieve them :)

Running my way into 2014...

I’ll be running my way into 2013…

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What are some of your biggest resolutions? What are some of your smallest?
Do you think its possible to achieve all these goals?

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December 27, 2012

Running Hiatus & Revolve Fitness {Real Ride}

Now I know I’ve said this before, but my body seriously hates me. After my recent ski trip, I came back and went on two runs. The first was fine. But during the end of the second and during recovery I noticed a bad pain in my proximal tibia (area on the tibia below the kneecap). It got worse and that day even walking was painful.

Its been a week since then and while the pain is less, it is still there. Especially when going down stairs. Now, I’m pretty concerned its a stress fracture (symptoms indicate this) from doing too much too soon while skiing, plus I’ve had a stress fracture before so I know my bones just stink. I’m currently loading up on Calcium+Vitamin D and trying to get an appointment with my doc. But until then, I’m sadly on a running hiatus.

Unfortunately, there will be no more of this for a little while…

Last healthy run.

Last healthy run.

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After no physical activity for a week straight, I decided to go to a spin class to see how things felt (by the way, they felt okay.. yay!). I am typically a Soul Cycling kind of girl but had the opportunity to try out a new studio called Revolve Fitness. Revolve originally began operations in Washington, DC but recently opened a studio in Union Square. This class was also exciting because it was Karl’s first spin class, and I’m happy to report that he loved it!

The facilities: The first thing I noticed when I walked in was the welcoming staff, the clean environment, and that it was relatively spacious for a boutique spin studio. There were co-ed locker rooms downstairs (with an easy built-in lock system) and small male/female bathrooms with showers. It wasn’t too crowded and was very manageable in terms of space. The studio itself was the normal size for a spin studio, with the instructor in front and the lights dimmed once we started riding.

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*Rendering from Revolve website

The instructor: We chose a “Real Ride” class with Kristin Kenney, a Senior Master Instructor with Revolve Fitness and a kick-butt fitness trainer. She helped create the overall organization of this class (based on ACTUAL road cycle routes) and was incredibly motivating. She had a drawing of the uphills and downhills to expect along with intervals, and she pointed out what point in the course we were at during the 45 minute class. She also helped give corrections in form and checked RPM levels of the riders and I loved the way she communicated what to expect.

The class: The first thing that I noticed at Revolve were the bikes. This studio uses Schwinn bikes with a fancy little screen in front that tells your RPM to help keep on pace. At first I wasn’t sure about this but it was actually helpful for pacing myself, adjusting resistance, and made sense of how much effort is needed at any given time (e.g. “ride at 80 RPM” as opposed to “ride at 75%”).

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“Real Ride” was created based on real road routes and this class consisted of 11 hills. In order to help keep people at the same pace, Kristin let us know what RPM we should be riding at and about how much our resistance should be (low-moderate-high). Downhills were at lower resistance and faster RPM while uphills were the opposite. Most of the class was in the saddle, with some intermittent sprints our of the saddle in second and third positions. I didn’t mind this since it reminded me of riding my actual bike, although I’m used to a bit more time out of the saddle.

The class had no upper body component but was 45 minutes of continuous cycling, which allowed me to sweat up a storm like it was nobody’s business. Kristin was very thorough and incorporated resistance with cardio very well. The 45 minutes flew by and I had a ton of fun!

Screen shot 2012-12-27 at 3.05.06 PM

The verdict: I will definitely be back to this studio! Kristin was a great instructor and I liked the format of the class. I felt like it was a great workout, but a lot of fun. Karl agrees and we will both be back! Maybe I’ll even try the $99 Unlimited Intro month… a great deal.

The Details
Cost: $28 + $2 shoes
Location: Union Square, 52 E. 13th Street
Classes: Real Ride, Body Ride, and RIP Ride
Length: 45min or 60min
Schedule: http://www.revolvefitness.com/newyork/reserve-main.asp

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Have you been to Revolve?
What is your favorite place to spin?

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