Live and Learn

First week of January was crazy busy!  It was back to work and I also started the free month of Gladiator Boot Camp for this month.  I'm using it more for cross training, but find that some days are not as challenging as I'd like.  I guess it depends on the instructor for everybody trains you different. But, I won't complain for it's free and I like the accountability. They meet at 5:30 a.m. and now that my work hours are back to 10-6 p.m. I'm going to try and check out other locations this week for you can go to any location you want however many times you want for a month.  I'm also going to try and go on weights day only as my mileage is picking up during the weekdays and don't need to go on cardio days.  Besides that would mean I would have to work out 3 times a day when I teach cycle on Tuesdays/Thursdays for L.A. Fitness.  I don't want to over do it and get injured before my marathon.  Yes, it's hard to believe that I'm been working or L.A. Fitness as a Cycle Instructor for over a year now!  Wow, does time fly and still love it!  I teach Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evening.  I honestly believe that it has helped me stay injury free.  This past year was the first time I didn't suffer from some type of overuse running injury and I ran 3 marathons!  I also plan on doing yoga once a week to work on my core and flexibility which is a must to stay injury free too.

I always learn something new from every marathon I run in.  After running Chicago Marathon I went from two black nails to 6 black toenails after NYC.  After seeing my podiatrist, I found out that my shoes were too 1/2 too big.  You are supposed to have a thumb's width of space between the end of your longest toe and the top of your shoe.  If you do a lot of hill work, it's the down hills that will cause black toenails.  So, they gave me a quarter inch sticky pad insert to put on the inside top your shoe to keep your feet from sliding down when running downhill.  Of course, I'm not giving up on my hill work for that is part of my training plan at least once a week and that's what will get me through tough marathons like Fort Worth Cowtown and Boston which are hilly courses. My podiatrist also recommend I take the vitamin Biotin to helps nails get stronger and also helps with hair (split ends).  I bought a bottle of it on Amazon for like $12.

 It will take a month to see it work, but I'm willing to give it a try.  In the meantime, I'll paint them dark..LOL.  The good news is that I don't have a fungus and eventually the black nail will grow out.  Most runners get black toe nails and it's normal.  I'm just glad my husband is not a pretty feet kind of guy...LOL!