Archive for January, 2009

Doggie girl posted on the Women’s BQ thread that she was surprised to have chafed in the cold weather the other day.  Of course, without knowing where she chafed, I could not resist such an opening to reveal where I’m Body Gliding these days.

In summer, it’s all about the tops of my inner thighs, a chafing spot that is magically cured in the winter, when I trade shorts for tights.  The trade-out is not without a trade-off, however, since tights can create their own form of chafing torture for me.  It’s a real bummer in fact, since the chafing happens where I’d least expect it – my crack, to be exact.

The back seam of my tights has managed to rub me raw enough times on a long run that I’ve taken to Body Gliding my crack on a semi-regular basis.  I’ve no choice, since you can’t tell it’s happening until later, when the after-run shower spray hits your sports-related diaper rash like a searing cup of McDonald’s coffee.

Luckily, when I revealed where the Glide was going to my Women’s BQ pals, several of those fabulous ladies admitted the same, insuring that I wasn’t a lone Crack Glider.  Whew.

Still, putting the glide there is a somewhat tricky process and not the most self-respecting way to prepare for a run, but there are worse things to worry about.  In fact, as far as physical admissions (or emissions) go, I had another secret little problem when doing hard speed sessions last Fall into Spring.  When pushing a workout (intervals or races), I’d squirt a little pee.

This isn’t a huge deal unless you’re wearing those cute colorful running shorts from Old Navy, then a couple drops blossom into a full-fledged embarrassment that lasts a good long time since it always happens a few miles from home.  For a while there, I took to wearing a thin pad (sorry, male readers, it has to be said) on speed and race days, which worked well but I still hated that it happened at all.  Of course, being a woman in her mid-forties, you have to expect this sort of thing so I wasn’t insanely freaked out, just made depressingly aware that I was getting older.

Thankfully, joyously, it eventually stopped happening completely – didn’t even require a single kegel exercise.  Not sure what did the trick, though in all seriousness, I wonder if getting used to running hard had something to do with it.   Whatever the reason, it’s a thrill to not have to worry about it anymore.

Winter crack chafe, on the other hand, looks to be here to stay.

First post of the new year, I feel so fresh and unfettered.

Last night was lovely, Nick and I declined a couple parties in favor of staying home and cocooning in the new year.  I made a really good meal (always hit and miss with me) of roast beef with roasted vegetables.  First time I’d ever made roasted vegetables or even bought a parsnip; they came out so wonderfully that it’s our new favorite way to cook veggies.

Later today is a benefit for my friend who got attacked back in mid-November.  She’s really had a shitty road back so far, just got out of the hospital last week, then straight into a rehab facility for a few weeks.  Great news is her eye is officially ok, she has sight in it after a second operation this week.  I think she had 7 operations in all.  Anyway, the benefit is at her favorite local bar/restaurant – they’re donating a large chunk of today’s sales to her recovery expenses.  Very cool.

But back to the New Year and reviewing the past one:  2008 turned out to be a good year for running improvement, though a couple huge hiccups in training made it an important learning experience as well.

1. My first big sick episode (February).  The bronchial/flu mess took me off running for almost 2 weeks, then another few weeks to get back up to speed.  If anything like that starts to happen again, I’m getting to a doctor pronto.  I could have shortened that incident bigtime had I done that.

2. My first injury (April and May).  The whole ankle thing was scary on a couple levels – the fact that it hurt, but more importantly, that it took me a while to get it diagnosed properly so in the meantime I imagined all sorts of terrible things which really messed with my head.  As above, if I get injured again, must get to the doc sooner.  At least I found a great podiatrist out of it – apres le quack, that is.

So my hope for 2009 is a year of uninterrupted training and solid growth.  What are your hopes for 2009?  Anything you’d do different than last year? Any wise discoveries made in 2008? I’d love to hear, humor me and post a comment.

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! WOOHOO!!