Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Week 13 - Columbus Training

Sunday - 0, much needed rest
Monday - 2.1 easy peasy miles
Tuesday - 4 miles at the track. (7 x 800s)
Wednesday - 0 rest
Thursday - 0, so tired. Fell asleep right before my run was supposed to happen.
Friday - 0 Oops. Didn't get up in time before we left for Chicago.
Saturday - walked a lot?

A trip to Chicago really ruined my training this past week/weekend. The plan is to push hard this week, as it will be my last big week before the marathon, so every bit counts.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Track Night

First day of fall and the King's Collision Center temperature clock read 87ยบ! And it was muggy, also. At least there was a water bottle waiting for me after each lap at the track if I wanted. It threatened to rain on us the entire time, and there was a short set of sprinkles that felt good.

Cool cloud off in the distance.

















Krista joined me this time for my Yasso 800's. I really do think it's greatly helping me to be able to push in the longer distances. Maybe through the winter I'll try something else, shorter and faster, to try to get my speed and leg turnover up.

We warmed up 1200. Then she and I did 4 x 800. Krista then headed off to the stadium stairs and did those (yikes! I haven't done that since college!). I continued on running 3 more 800s. The last one was hard. I felt it in my legs. But I never slowed down, which I'm happy about. I probably could have gone one more, though it was getting really hard to breathe. More than my legs, the breathing thing is what holds me back I think.

Anyway, our splits were mostly around 4:20. Last few were 4:18, so I'm happy about that. I know that is horrendously slow, but whatever.

Greg and Roman were there too. Here is Greg demonstrating to Roman how he can make his hand flutter really fast, er... something.

















I wore my marathon shoes. Broke them in nicely I think. Maybe another long run in them and then I'll put them in the closet until race day!

Monday, September 21, 2009

18 Miles!

Saturday Greg and I went out to Miami Whitewater. I ran 18 miles and Greg ran 8. Sorry, no pictures. This is just going to be a boring wordy post.

Greg did the first loop with me, which is about 8 miles if you stretch it all the way out in the parking lot. We went at a steady 10:55 - 11:00 pace and chatted. He was starting to feel it by the end, but did great. The most he's ever ran (about 4 years ago) is 6.2. I was very impressed.

We got back to the beginning and I stretched briefly. I was so tight. Then Greg went to cool down and play some disc golf while I ran the loop again, to get to 16 miles. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. When we first started on the first loop, it was hard to hold back at the slow pace. During the second loop, I kept looking at my watch, fulling expecting the pace to start showing well into the 11's. But I managed to hang on at 10:57... until about 13.4 miles. It was getting too hard to maintain the pace, so I let myself slow down to whatever felt right. When it was all done, I averaged 11:34. I'm still pretty happy with that, especially considering it was kind of hilly and I ran up all the big hills. I felt strong and in control.

After the second loop, I went ahead and did the little inner loop that is only about 1.4 miles. I still had 2 miles to go! The inner loop starts with a severe long down hill, which hurt. Then it levels out and joins the outer loop, so I had to run the big hill at the end of the outer loop yet again, making it a 3rd time! It was rough.

By now, I was definitely hurting everywhere. I found what I will call my marathon shuffle though. I was moving forward at a steady pace and everything felt in control (breathing, body parts, etc). I saw Greg and told him I had about .7 to go and ran around the concession stand and back. I felt like throwing my arms into the air when I saw 18.00 click over on my GPS. Finally finished, I walked up to the concession stand where Greg was. I really wanted chocolate milk, but had to settle for a Pepsi. After sitting for a little bit, sipping the Pepsi and moaning, we got in the car and headed back home. I fell asleep on the way back.

Pain, definite pain! But today is Monday and I'm already feeling better. Most importantly, I have NO HIP PAIN. I can kind of feel it when I stretch, but that is all. So I'm so happy about that!

I think the marathon is going to be absolutely awesome! It is less than a month away now, I can't wait!!

Week 12 - Columbus Training

Sunday - 0
Monday - 3.8 and it felt good.
Tuesday - 0. Work.
Wednesday - 6 with no pain afterwords!!
Thursday - 3 miles after PT appointment... hurt!
Friday -
Saturday - 18 miles!!!!!!! No pain (well, not in my hip anyway) and it was somewhat hilly.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Week 11 - Columbus Training

Not a good week. :(

Sunday
- 0, Disc golf at Banklick, but had to stop because hip hurt too bad
Monday 0
Tuesday - 4 miles at the track. Hip in extreme pain later that night.
Wednesday - 0, Can't even walk without pain and limping.
Thursday - 0, Appointment at Oxford Physical Therapy. Diagnosis: tight everything in my hip. Got stretches to do and a new appointment.
Friday - 2 miles, successful
Saturday - 0, quite a bit of walking

Friday, September 11, 2009

My Hips Don't Lie

So after Tuesday night at the track, my hip wasn't feeling so great again. Each time I walked between intervals, it hurt a little. Oddly it didn't hurt at all when I ran. By the time we were home and into the evening it was hurting really bad. Then I didn't sleep well because I couldn't move in bed without really bad pain. Wednesday, I limped around all day and moved at slow speeds as if I had the flu. I was grumpy and the 800 MG Advil wasn't working. Greg convinced me to call Oxford Physical Therapy and made an appointment for the next day. I think I was in denial that something was wrong.

The appointment went well. Diagnosis is: hip flexors (i.e. everything in my hip) is tight. My IT band (iliotibial on the diagram) is a little bit tight, but not effecting my knee and I actually can't tell it's tight. He could tell by feeling it (gross). He thinks my bursae are a little swollen. The ligaments around them are all irritated and tight. And my quads are a little tight. Thankfully my piriformis isn't at all in pain. It's mostly all the big red chunks at the top of this diagram.






















I stretch after I run, but I've never really paid attention to what I'm doing and guiltily admit sometimes I don't stretch much or at all. You can't train for a marathon and not stretch properly.

So, I am going to do my exercises, not run 18 as planned this weekend, and start adding the mileage back easy. Good news is that I should still be able to run Columbus. I just have to take it easy for a bit and be more careful. Glad this happened now and not closer to the race date where I probably wouldn't have enough time to fix myself.

Today I feel a lot better and there is barely any pain. I am going to run maybe 2 miles later today and see how it goes. Baby steps. For my appointment next week, they are going to work on me and do some things to get my hip a lot better, which I have a feeling means hurt me to heal me.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Week 10 - Columbus Training

Wasn't a great week. Ended with some hip pain- maybe from when I fell off my bike and then aggravated it more with a hard bike ride on Thursday. Not sure. Either way, I've had some days off and am going crazy now! Tonight we're going to the track, so hopefully everything is better.

Sunday - 0, disc golf at Gulley
Monday 0
Tuesday - 4 miles at the track
Wednesday - 3 miles
Thursday - 15 mile bike ride from my house
Friday - 3.8 miles
Saturday - 0

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Tuesday Track Time


















Greg and I went to the track again tonight, like we did last Thursday. We met our friend Roman there, and he and Greg (aka the speedsters) ran some 400's while I slowly did mile repeats.

I warmed up for 1 mile. Then I did 2 miles at 9:00 pace each, resting in between. During the second one I was soooo tired. I had planned to do a third 9:00 but decided not to. I ran one more mile kind of slowly to cool down.

It sucks being slow, but I have to start somewhere. It is really fun to go to the track with people though! We hope to do it again next week. I'd like to continue doing it weekly, during the marathon training and beyond.

16 Miles - My Longest Run Yet

I was going to have some illustrations to go along with this, but I'm running out of time, so I'm just dumping it all out there. 16 miles is a long way, and it's kind of funny how the time and scenery pass by.

Miles 1 - 2.... Typical run environment from my house, sun and shade and trees. It was a beautiful day with cool temperatures.

Miles 2 - 3... Past the Regal theater, behind Lifetime Fitness, a van went up on the curb at corner before I crossed street. ?!

Miles 3 - 6... Long boring sidewalk along Mason-Montgomery...saw another runner...saw a girl on a bike. Took my gel at mile 6. Thoughts were about Hurricane Ike from last year since this was the same sidewalk I was on while trying to head home in that storm.

Miles 6 - 8... Along Tylersville, then 42. There is some construction through here and a street cleaner was sucking up broken up asphalt. It stunk and was smokey and loud. I somehow pushed one of my bottles up out of my belt with my leg (I think I was hopping over stuff) and it fell out, but I heard the construction guy yelling "ma'am!!!" at me and was able to turn around and retrieve it.

Miles 8 - 10... Down a hill, up a hill...there were some more construction workers and I ran over new asphalt they had just put down. It was sticky. Then up in a neighborhood, I passed a sign for a "Roman Garage Sale". They had things out in their yard like big columns and pots with plants in them, and big pictures of different architecture in Rome. Kind of strange. Maybe they are just absolutely sick of Rome in their house and are switching cities.

Miles 10 - 13... Ate a pretzel- that doesn't work. I brought pretzels along for the salt, but I had to drink so much water with the pretzel in order to get it down it wasn't worth it. It was like trying to eat saltines. I began to get tired and slow down. Along Innovation Way I took a little break in the shade to stretch and a funeral procession passed by.

Miles 13... Very rough part here, mentally. Began thinking of chocolate milk and Chipotle but decided it was too early to begin thinking of rewards. Still had 3 miles to go.

Miles 14 - 15... Started to shuffle. Took some walk breaks.

Miles 15 - 16... Shuffle shuffle shuffle...sooo.... tired... but I finished!

Afterwards... Had a brief chat with the neighbors- "16 miles?!" "yeah, gotta go...sorry...gotta eat..." I sat down outside in the deck with the hose and watered down my legs and feet with the cold water. That felt very good. While I was doing that, my sweet husband made a tall glass of chocolate milk for me and I drank that down pretty quickly. Then I had a tall glass of iced sweet tea. I didn't want Chipotle or any other food for awhile, but ended up eating some pasta after a bit.

I'm glad that this weekend is a "low" mileage long run!