San Diego-Go-Go

Last week we flew to San Diego for a mini vacation.  One of my friends was getting married in Del Mar and we decided to play tourist for a few days.  I joked that we got a lot of exercise in last week, but not much training so to speak.  We took Thursday as our "recovery" day and spent six hours walking up and down the hills of the San Diego Zoo.  We were supposed to go out that night with the bride and groom, but I was exhausted and my foot wasn't feeling so great so we stayed in.

I probably spent the most time watching the gorillas interact.
This was a little toddler who was definitely not shy!

On Friday, we had a bike ride planned.  I tried to find a proper bike shop to rent bikes from, but the only places I could find to rent from were more like recreational bike and kayak type shops.  So we reserved bikes online.  I am in between a 44 and a 48 and the smallest they had was a 49, but I figured that would be ok with some adjustments.  Not the case.  I was hurting in places a girl should not hurt.  And, this was not normal saddle pain.  After only one hour, we turned around.  When we returned the bikes, some guy came up to us and told me how he got the bikes ready for us and wanted to see if they were ok.  I commented that it was very uncomfortable and then he told me I was riding a 52!  Well no wonder why that ride sucked.  And, where was he when we were trying to get someone's attention earlier????  Anyway, it was water under the bridge and I told Nick that we basically just did an hour workout instead of getting in a good ride.  As my coach reminded me last night, "it was maintenance."


The shortened bike ride, opened up our day.  After a delicious unplanned lunch at my favorite SD restaurant, we decided to spend the afternoon at Sea World, with my lifetime friend and her two daughters.  I was a giddy school girl around the seals and sea lions.  

Aint too proud to beg

But these two were just as giddy as I was!

On Saturday, we went trail running.  On the way to the park, we noticed the Road Runner's corporate headquarters off the freeway and stopped there on the way home.  I was fitted for shoes biomechanically about 2 years ago, but since I have such foot problems these days, I wanted to get fitted again.  The store had about 14 treadmills in the middle of the store with video cameras on each device and special machines and balance stations to create custom orthotics.  They recommended three different shoes for me (one of which included my current shoe thank goodness).  In the end, I did get some custom orthotics and went with a different shoe that is slightly more narrow than my current running shoe.  


I am slightly hopeful that a different fit and the custom orthortics will be helpful.  But, last night I met with my coach and we discussed the need to really learn how to start walking.  He said it is time to get my head and my body (arm swing, cadence, etc.) prepared for walking most of it.  He really has scaled back my running workouts because he does not want me to injure myself.  I am feeling extremely inadequate with the low mileage I am getting in, but that's why he's a Level II certified coach and I am not.  He wants to protect the potential we have in my left foot rather than blowing it on training.  So I am slowly letting go of what I *think* I should be doing and subsequently feeling guilty about what I'm not doing, and instead accepting that these baby workouts will eventually pay off in only 49 days!  *gulp*