My Year of Not Running

Hello, my name is Kim and I'm a reformed compulsive exerciser. It's been one year since my last run. You may know me by the infamous expression, Go HAM. And Go HAM I did. Until I didn't.

I slept in today until 7:00am, and woke up without the need to look outside to see if it was raining/snowing, check my phone for the current temperature, or spend ten minutes deciding how many layers to put on to be outside for 30-60-120 minutes. Is it a holiday? Am I on vacation? No, friends. It is a Friday in my post-running world.

I started running by accident in 2009. I signed up for a charity 5K and surprised myself by running most of it. I ran on my own for a few months to make sure my body could do it, that it wasn't a time-limited offer from my joints, and then I joined a couple of running groups and started running. In five years, I completed 7 half marathons, 10 triathlons, and 1 Half Ironman.

The mark of a true runner is how much money they've spent on physical therapy. I was in physical therapy off and on from 2010 to 2014. First for my left hip, then my left ankle, then my left knee, then my right knee, then my shoulder, then back to my knees. I also paid for x-rays, cortisone shots, prescription anti-inflammatories, sticks, foam rollers, an orthopedic sports doctor, a rheumatoid arthritis specialist, acupuncture, shoe inserts, ankle and knee braces, and kinetic tape. Let's just say if what I spent on being an injured runner were a car, it would not be a seven year old, manual transmission Toyota Camry with no hubcaps.

You might be wondering, is she made of glass? Did she not receive enough calcium as a child? No, my bones are fine, all of my injuries were due to overuse. In fact, this is tame compared to what most long distance runners go through. You see, I never made it past half marathon level. There is another echelon of injuries and physical therapy for those who run full and ultra marathons. If you're reading this and you're in high school, or early college, become a physical therapist. You will always have a job.

Around this time last year, I got up at 4:45am, looked outside to see if it was raining/snowing, checked my phone for the current temperature, spent ten minutes deciding how many layers to put on to do a 40 minute run, then got in my car and drove to one of my weekly group runs. My heart wasn't in it, so when my knee gave out a mile into the run, I called it, I was done with this sport.

In early fall, when the weather changed, I missed running for the first time. There's nothing like the first cool run of the year after a long, hot, southern summer. Luckily, I'm not the only one in my friend group who quit running, so I called on my fellow non-runners and we started hiking. That scratched the itch and the running bug went back into hibernation.

I did it. I went one whole year without running. God knows what I've saved on race registration fees. I'm hoping quitting running is like quitting smoking, that for every year you don't run, you gain ten years on your knees' lives.

I didn't realize how much pain I was in until the pain wasn't there anymore. One day it was just gone and I realized, 'Holy shit, I have been in pain for six years!'. I live in a sixties era, split level house, with full and half flights of stairs everywhere. Basically, I live in the house in Labyrinth. For six years, I've been hobbling up and down these stairs, usually going down them sideways. Not anymore! It is glorious.

I didn't quit running to replace it with something else. I quit because it was something I was wearing that didn't fit anymore, so I took it off. I finally had the space to think about what I wanted to do. Turns out, I wanted to twerk. So now I twerk, hike, walk, ride my bike, and ride a cardio machine at the gym when I feel like it. My body is different than it was when I was running, but I'm okay with that. None of the things I want in life are related to my physical fitness. It's time to give my body a break and focus on my voice, creativity and writing. It just fits.

P.S. If you're interested in my thoughts leading up this post, read Diet Industry Drop-Out.

P.P.S. An embarrassing look at where I was at a year ago Eff You, January Body.

Race Recap: Oak Barrel Half Marathon 2015

Last Saturday, I ran the Oak Barrel Half Marathon for the third year in a row. I didn't exactly train for this race, at least not in terms of how I usually train. I missed weeks of runs due to weather, so I just did what I could and hoped for the best.

Some quick stats. I PR-ed at my last half marathon, the Mt. Juliet Holiday Half in December, with a finish time of 2:22. I knew I wouldn't beat that time, but I was pretty sure I would beat my previous two Oak Barrel times of 2:34 and 2:50.

There were a bunch of us at this race, including Melanie, who I ran the Mt. Juliet Half with. Right before we started, Melanie said she was going to take it easy and run an 11:30 pace. I said that sounded good and that I'd run with her. And then we were off!

Mile 1 - 10:48
Mile 2 - 10:49
Mile 3 - 11:02

When we hit Mile 1, I told Melanie we were a little fast, but the pace felt comfortable, so we kept it up. Somewhere around Mile 3, we started going uphill and Melanie dropped me. At this point, I came up with a race plan. I decided to walk the big hills, run the first half of the race conservatively, and run the last half fast.

Mile 4 - 11:05
Mile 5 - 13:38
Mile 6 - 11:20

Oh, Whiskey Hill, you son of a bitch. The reason this race is so hard is because of the 1-mile hill that goes up to the top of a ridge line. The elevation is 1,127 feet. That's a big hill, guys. Every year, there is debate about running vs. walking. The argument for walking is A) it is unrunable, unless you're a mountain goat, and B) you can walk it as fast as you'll run it, so save your energy. The argument for running is - you don't walk during races.

I walked it.

Mile 7 - 12:04
Mile 8 - 11:29
Mile 9 - 11:01

The mean thing about Whiskey Hill is as soon as you get to the top, you have to run up another hill. It's rude. I walked that hill, too. Eff it. Also, not for nothing, but when I fell last year, I fell in-between miles 7 and 8, and I swear it's because I ran all those hills and blew my knees out. Not this year! You're welcome, knees.

Mile 10 - 10:43
Mile 11 - 10:16
Mile 12 - 11:38

Yay, downhill! I started picking up my pace somewhere between miles 8 and 9 and continued getting faster as the course flattened out and eventually became a downhill sprint. I love the end of this race. I also got chased by the Wicked Witch of the West at the last water stop, which cracked me up and gave me the final push I needed to finish strong. Thanks, Witch!

Mile 13 - 10:54
Finish time - 2:28:23

I cannot believe I finished in under 2:30. I easily walked 10 minutes of this race. If I had known, or cared, I probably could have beaten my PR of 2:22. WHATEVER. In 2013, I ran this race at 192 lbs and finished at 2:50. Last year, I ran at 175 lbs and finished at 2:34. This year, I ran at 161 lbs and finished at 2:28. So yeah, I'm okay with this year's time.

L to R: 2013, 2014, 2015

Hold on to your hats, because I'm about to go full-Oprah.

So here are things that happened to me for the first time during this race: I had fun, I had zero knee pain, my knees didn't give out, my shoulder-neck-collarbone zone didn't hurt, and I made a couple of new friends along the course, namely a heavily tattooed man I called 'Stripes'. This was my seventh half marathon and it's the first one I've enjoyed, and by that I mean, I didn't spend any part of the race in excruciating pain and/or telling myself I'm not doing anymore of these races.

At the Music City Tri last summer, I put a lot on pressure on myself about my finish time, because it was going to play a big role in estimating my 70.3 finish time for Augusta. I was so worked up, I was almost sick, and right before the swim start, my friend Sarah Shearer basically told me to chill the eff out and just have fun.

At the time, I had no idea how to do that. I was so scared that if I was having fun, then I wasn't taking it seriously. And if I wasn't taking it seriously, then why in the hell was I doing it? I had some real talk with my therapist and realized that I am never in danger of not taking something seriously, so I might as well have fun. It took me eight months to get here, but I think I'm finally here. Raise the roof for therapy, y'all!

Full photostream here.

Weekend Wrap Up: Organize It Edition

My friend, and graphic designer to the stars, Meg, bought a totally rad new house in East Nashville and invited us ladies over to check it out. I have a huge crush on Meg's new digs and won't rest until my entire house is painted grey.

You know some days you wake up and your brain's like, 'Not today, bitch'? Saturday was one of those days. I published this post about maybe not doing my race, which begged the question, if I'm not doing the race, am I still going to ride my trainer for an hour? Turns out, no. But then I sat on the couch and beat myself up for not riding my trainer. Then I started eating. Then I closed the curtains, laid down on the couch and started watching House of Cards. Thankfully Carolyn texted and asked if I wanted to go shopping. Yes! Yes I do.

I was on a quest for acrylic makeup organizers, but needed to expand my search beyond Nashville West and Bellevue, so we went to Rivergate. We hit that Rivergate TJ Maxx HARD. I think we were in there for three hours, #2Legit2Quit. Then we went to Goodwill where I scored this vintage Pendleton blazer. I tried it on, then decided I didn't want it and set it down, but Carolyn made me go back and get it, and after looking at these pictures, I'm glad she did. I don't know what I was thinking (probably that I was hungry), but good save C-Bass!

My entire existence hinged on whether or not I worked out on Sunday. The only answer was to do the GD run, so without giving it another thought, I got dressed and drove to Belle Meade Blvd. I ran 7 miles. Alone. In the rain. I rewarded myself with Tequila's. John and I feasted on fajitas, and not just any fajitas, Fajitas Texanas, because sometimes you have to splurge for those two pieces of shrimp.

When I'm stressed out or working through a big decision, I clear my mind by tackling an organization project. I typically organize existing systems, like shoes, scarves, jewelry, etc. But sometimes I have to go buy new systems and re-work the whole thing. I've been real pissed off at my makeup zone lately. I need to see it all in one place. And I need acrylic organizers.

I realized these suckers exist all over the place, but the ones I found were either the wrong style, or the right style, but broken. I finally found what I wanted at the Rivergate TJ Maxx. So I sat at the dining room table yesterday, pulled all my makeup out of everywhere and organized it into this thing. It was very cathartic. I only kept what I actually wear, or new samples from Birchbox that I haven't tried yet. I threw away a ton of stuff and made a give-away bag of stuff I've only used once or twice. I feel so much better!

Weekend Wrap Up: Old Slickory Edition

We had an ice storm in Nashville last week. I couldn't drive on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, tried driving on Thursday - mistake, and went back to not driving on Friday. Our driveway kept re-freezing, as did the street in front of our house. By Saturday afternoon, I decided I was going to Target if I had to put on my wetsuit and walk there.

It finally melted enough on Saturday afternoon for me to drive. I made it to Target. And Marshall's. And Old Navy. I needed new pajama pants, a black pencil skirt and ankle-length black pants. Target had absolutely nothing in my size. So I bought this candle. It was $10 and smells like the fancy one from Anthropologie. I got the rug and two black shirts at Marshall's. I heart that rug so hard. They had a million of them. This one was $30, but they had a bunch for $15 and $20, FYI. I hate Old Navy, but I knew they'd have pajama pants (on sale for $9), and they had nice-ish black pants and an okay black pencil skirt. Done.

My #1 homegirl, Lana, is running a full marathon on Saturday. I haven't done a long run in 2 weeks, but Melanie and I really wanted to run Lana's last long training run with her. She needed to run 8 miles, so we met at Belle Meade Blvd and ran the last 6 miles with her. And shockingly, none of us fell! (Everything was still covered in ice, except it was black ice now.)

Good luck on Saturday, Lana! Show Arizona the HAM!!!

Later on Sunday, I got to watch this little guy blow out the candle on his first birthday cake. Happy first birthday, Charlie! Your mom throws a mean party! (Alexis, I hope there's less babies at the Christmas party though.)

My plan on Sunday night was to watch the Oscar Awards a la our digital antenna. Nope. ABC was blacked out for the night. No problem, it's streaming online. Nope, not actually streaming. Only streaming things you can't see on TV, like the "backstage cam", the "audience cam", and my personal favorite, the "thank you cam". I hate you, ABC.

Weekend Wrap Up: Pizza Pizza Pizza Edition

I just realized that I ate pizza every day this weekend. On Friday, I celebrated a friend's birthday with homemade lobster pizza; on Saturday, I had pizza at City House; and on Sunday, John and I ate lunch at Desano. Tragically, I have no evidence of this pizza bonanza, so here's a picture of this car I was fortunate enough to park beside on Friday morning in Hillsboro Village.

On Saturday, I did my first outdoor ride since September. It was supposed to be a lot warmer than it was, of course. I basically just took what I'd wear for a long run and doubled it. My stomach hurt for hours because of all the different waistbands I had on. I was cold, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. I tagged along on a group ride that started at Shelby and went to the Percy Priest dam and back, about 24 miles. I had a lot of fun and miraculously remembered how to shift and clip-out. Yay, muscle memory!

Another thing I remembered, riding my bike makes me really hungry. Luckily, my friend Carolyn was nearby, so we met up at Mas Tacos where I ordered, and ate, all of the things. I don't remember what I did the rest of the day, but that night, I met my friend Meg at City House to thank her for designing my logo. Oh hello, belly ham pizza, WITH AN EGG. Per Mary Katherine's recommendation, we also treated ourselves to the Tennessee Waltz cake. Y'all. Go get that cake.

Early Sunday morning, before the rain set in, my lady gang met for a long run. We got rained on a little, so we warmed up at Dose with coffee and breakfast biscuits. You'd think eating an egg and cheese biscuit for breakfast would deter me from eating pizza for lunch. You'd be wrong. Hello, training metabolism!

Last night, while most people were watching the SuperBall-FootBowl, I was down the street being an extra in a photo shoot with my friend Freya. I played the part of rhythmically-challenged triathlete turns to burlesque for alternative fitness. Look for me soon on the Delinquent Debutantes website in the back row robotically doing all of the wrong moves.

Weekend Wrap Up: Popping Tags Edition

Oh hey, my face. While it was sleeting on Friday night, I kept warm under a blanket of chemicals and aluminum foil. Like the US Postal Service, neither rain, sleet, nor snow can keep me from my bi-monthly hair appointment. Also, for those keeping score at home, I didn't cut my hair. I'm not stopping until I achieve Crystal Gayle status. Apparently.

So the good news is, my fancy, new bike trainer is so quiet that Linda can sleep through my living room work-outs. The bad news is, Linda sleeps through my living room work-outs, #rude.

My friend April started an Article Club. She posted three articles online and we met at her house to discuss. We read this, this and this. As you may have deduced from my going off of Facebook for a month, I don't search out opportunities for tenuous conversation. But I've known April a long time and I trust her, plus few things get me going like group activities and meeting new people. There was also pizza and wine, so... duh.

I had a blast! April did a great job curating the right mix of attendees. We varied in age from 29-40+, single/divorced vs. married/re-married, children vs. no children, corporate vs. self-employed, cat vs. dog. It worked. We had real awesome, real respectful, real-talk. I had so much fun and can't wait for the next one.

My Sunday lady gang is a little disbanded at the moment, so I ended up running on my own yesterday. Sundays are supposed to be my long runs, but I keep not actually running long distances. I hurt my knees running that half marathon in December, so I've been slowing building back up. I ran five miles in Shelby yesterday, pretty fast:  10:22, 10:25, 10:26, 10:04, 9:34. Hooray, almost negative splits!

Because I don't have any friends anymore (kidding, kidding), I didn't do my post-run breakfast biscuit at Dose, so I was STARVING. John and I went to lunch at Kien Giang. Y'all, I'm not even kidding, I ate that banh mi as an appetizer.

File under: Duh. John and I are going to the Grammy's next week. There are three events that I need outfits for and finding those outfits will stand to be the greatest stressor of my life. Have I enlisted the help of a stylist? Yes. Have I ordered everything from everywhere? Yes. Do I have any idea what I'm wearing? No.

I found a gold blazer on Nasty Gal that I tried to buy only to find it exists solely in Mary Kate Olsen size. I've since made it my mission to find a gold blazer. I kind of found one. I think. I found this guy at the Rivergate Goodwill yesterday, where, pro tip, their blazer game is ON POINT. It's Calvin Klein and it appears to be brand new. It may need to be taken in a little, so we'll see (more pics on Flickr). To be continued...

Weekend Wrap Up: Holiday Hangover Edition

Oy. It's been a rough start back from the holidays, right? I think I have a holiday hangover. I did really good over the holidays and didn't buy myself anything, which I usually do the entire time I'm Christmas shopping. So to reward myself, on Friday I bought some stuff. You know, small ticket items like a Cycle Ops indoor bike trainer. Thanks, Red Kite! Then I went to Target and got new running tights (with a drawstring!) and this super cute/my new favorite sweatshirt. I needed a $40 sweatshirt like a hole in the head, but... #womenbeshopping.

I have exactly one friend from my youth, and this is her - Dawn. We met in middle school and have been friends and off and on roommates ever since. She moved to LA this year, but she was home for Christmas and wanted to check out Adele's, so I met her on Friday night for our fancy, lady dinner. Adele's - thumbs up!

More friends home for Christmas! On Saturday morning, I met my friend Hot Koh Koh for a run and coffee. And when I say run, I mean walk. Because we straight up walked for 4 miles. Whatever! My knee has been bothering me and it's easier to talk while walking anyway.

Okay, I did run on Sunday. Shockingly. I met Kristine, Melanie, Lana and Jessica to run various lengths in/around Belle Meade Boulevard. The three of us weren't feeling it, so we ran 3 miles, peaced out and went to Dose for coffee and biscuits.

Last week was my first week of Half Ironman training. I didn't actually start training, unless thinking, 'I should really start training' counts as training. I swim with NAC Masters and they sent out an email for their triathlete swimmers inviting us to show up at 3:30 on Sunday with our bikes and trainers for a 90 minute bike/swim brick workout. I just bought a bike trainer! I was super excited about this!

In not necessarily chronological order, here is a list of everything that went wrong. There was hockey practice and kids' swim practice, so I had to park a million miles away. It was freezing cold and raining. I was in flip flops. When I took my bike out of my trunk, my front tire wouldn't attach. I had to carry my bike, trainer and swim bag the million cold, wet miles into the building. I kept dropping things and sliding, because, flip flops. I got everything inside and up all the stairs to the bleachers only to realize that I didn't buy the training skewer to attach my bike to the trainer. No problem! I'll just park my bike and swim. The only lane open was so far away that I couldn't read the board, so I just swam freestyle for 45 minutes & got out. Wet, I walked my bike, swim bag and trainer back to my car. Still dropping things and sliding. I couldn't get the front tire back off my bike, so I couldn't get it in the trunk, and I couldn't get it in the backseat either. It was a disaster that ended in me crying all the way home. Interspersed in all this, were condescending remarks from men about bike maintenance, who I should be taking classes from and how bike trainers work. Thanks, men I don't know! You're why no one likes triathletes!

Weekend Wrap Up: Vaping, Baking and Barking Edition

On Friday afternoon, I did a photo session (shoot?) for my business website. Because I don't half-ass anything, I asked my friend Gio to do my hair and makeup. It's the best I've ever looked. I'm talking Kardashian-level contouring and highlighting. It took 2.5 hours to get me there, but man. Gio - thank you!

I worked with photographer Brian Risse, who some of you may know as Mr. Courtney Krampf. Brian spent about 2-3 hours shooting me in/around my house. Lot of prop changes, lot of outfit changes. Speaking of, shout-out to my girl Anjeanetta who came over earlier in the week to style my outfits and accessories for the shoot. It takes a village, people.

On Saturday, I put my dancing shoes (literally) and my santa hat in my cute, new Light In the Attic tote and headed down the road to Delinquent Debutantes for my Santa Baby Burlesque workshop with unicorn to the stars, Freya West. I had so much fun!!! It took 2 hours, but Freya taught me a 3 1/2 minute dance routine to "Santa Baby". Believe it!

Little known fact:  Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year for recording engineers. John Baldwin basically doesn't sleep in December. On Saturday night, he needed to pick some stuff up in East Nashville, so we grabbed ramen while we were over there. Yes, this is my second time in one week. I'm addicted!

On Sunday morning, I drove to Brentwood to meet Melanie and Jessica for a 6-mile run on the greenway. Afterwards, we spent easily 20 minutes taking pictures of ourselves with this bear. I call this one, "Bearly" Made the Podium. Ba da bum!

I ran a few last minute Christmas errands and then went home to bake all the things. And eat too much of the things. One day I'm going to get salmonella from raw eggs, but until then, COOKIE DOUGH FOR LIFE.

I was listening to Christmas music while I was baking (duh). John had ran out to get more vaping supplies (I know). When he got back, this hilarious Stephen Colbert Christmas song was on that we both love, so he grabbed his guitar and sat down and learned it. Our house is real ridiculous sometimes.

Race Recap: Mt. Juliet Holiday Half Marathon

A few weeks ago, I ran my sixth half marathon, the Team Magic Mt. Juliet Holiday Half. This was the race I signed up for while training for Ironman 70.3 Augusta, to have something to train for after my 70.3. The last half marathon I ran (aside from Augusta) was the Oak Barrel Half last April, and I PR-ed at that race. For you non-runners, a PR means your best time, or "personal record". Here are my half marathon stats:

Tom King, 2012
2:43, 11:41 avg min/mile

NOLA, 2013
2:52, 13:04 avg min/mile

Oak Barrel, 2013
2:50, 12:55 avg min/mile

Oak Barrel, 2014
2:34, 11:46 avg min/mile

IM 70.3 Augusta, 2014
2:53, 13:16 avg min/mile

*Holiday Half, 2014
2:22, 10:46 avg min/mile

I set a new PR at the *Holiday Half with a finish time of 2:22, beating my previous PR by 12 minutes. I was hoping to PR at this race. I've gotten a lot faster, plus I'm 20 lbs lighter. I've run a lot of my long runs at a 9:30 - 10:00 min/mile pace, so I was hoping to run this at 10:00 and finish at 2:12. I missed my goal by 10 minutes, but I'm still proud of my 2:22 finish time, especially since I ran wearing a full-length, fur-trimmed Santa Claus apron, which, P.S. I highly recommend because those apron pockets hold everything!

I ran this race totally wrong. My fastest mile was my first mile, which is the absolute wrong way to run a long distance race. You're supposed to start about 30-60 seconds slower than your race pace, so I should have been running a 10:30 or 11:00. I paid the price when I hit MOUNTAIN JULIET at mile 3.

Mile 1 - 9:17 (DUMB)
Mile 2 - 9:31
Mile 3 - 11:24

This part of the race was actually through the main drag of Mt. Juliet (I think. I don't know Mt. Juliet). Two things: 1) a Hardee's advertising a special bologna and Velveeta breakfast biscuit, which made me dry heave, and 2) a Dairy Queen turned Christmas tree depot with these cute little wooden reindeer, one with polka dots. Because common sense factored into no part of this race (see: mile 1) (see also: my outfit), I spent about 30 seconds debating whether or not I could run with that polka dotted reindeer under my arm. Spoiler alert: I didn't. I don't run with money, plus, John is still mad about that snowman chiminea I brought home.

Mile 4 - 10:49
Mile 5 - 9:48
Mile 6 - 10:06

I started this race running alongside Melanie, but she dropped me early on. I caught up to her around now and we fell back in step with each other. This part of the race curved through a residential neighborhood. It felt very East Nasty. Somewhere in here is where my knee started to give out. Of course. I walked a little bit, but was mostly okay and able to run back out of the neighborhood.

Mile 7 - 10:16
Mile 8 - 10:38
Mile 9 - 10:59

These miles were not fun for me. I was still with Melanie, but we were both having trouble. Me with my knees and Melanie with her IT band. This part of the race, visually, was also super boooooring. I spent a long time in my head asking myself why I continue to do these things. This is not fun. My body is not enjoying this. Swim Bike Mom calls this the Pain Cave. I was definitely in my pain cave.

Mile 10 - 11:35
Mile 11 - 12:07 (pain cave)
Mile 12 - 11:59

I was doing a run/walk interval for these last two-ish miles and it was actually helping. We were also running back through town and people were honking and waving. Nothing pulls you out of the pain cave faster than pride. I was going to run that last mile, in front of all those people. And I did. The last mile was great and I was able to finish strong (ish).

Mile 13 - 11:23
Finish time - 2:22:06 (a PR)

I run with a Garmin, so I knew I didn't make my goal time of 2:12, but I was happy to have stayed under 2:30. All of my pain dissipated as soon as I quit running, so I felt fine and went inside to get drinks and snacks and see my friends.

I liked this race! I didn't hear any serious complaints. A lot of people took issue with the road traffic and having to run in the shoulder on main highways. Hilariously, I didn't even notice this. That's either from being a cyclist or being a triathlete, but I never felt uncomfortable during the race. And then EVERYONE complained about the hills on this course, not because we can't run hills, but because it was billed as "flat and fast". For my fellow East Nasties, I looked at the elevation from The Nasty and this race is hillier.

Team Magic is great and they'll work all of this out. There are always kinks in the first year of a race. I'd run this again - it's cheap, it's close and it was fun to dress up. But next year, I'm carrying cash and buying that reindeer.

Full photostream here.