Long Run and Spectating in Columbus

Saturday I ran my last 6 miles before the Cincinnati Half coming up on the 23rd. It went OK... I didn't feel too stellar. Mentally I was pretty out of it. I wasn't too excited to run from my house. I considered just doing 6 x up and down the street to get the 6 in, but didn't want to do that either. I grabbed my Garmin GPS and figured I'd just run wherever I felt like without having to worry about it. But that didn't work either because my GPS is officially dead. Before, I was having problems with it staying connected to the watch, but now it won't even turn on. :( I changed the batteries, haven't looked into anything else that might be wrong with it. Oh well. Maybe in a couple months before I start running distances again I can find some kind of cool new one that's all in the watch. It lasted 7 years. I first got it from Greg while we lived in Florida. It made going out for runs completely different. I didn't have to try to map anything out first - I could just go, which made it much more fun and adventurous.

Anyway, after grumpily mapping out a route, which I ended up having to change anyway while out there thanks to all of the construction on Montgomery, I went out the door with my LogYourRun app on. Turns out it was only .1 miles off (it's not known for its accuracy). I maintained a 10:00 pace, so that's good. And now it's taper week. I will probably bike Monday night, then run Tuesday, easy. Wednesday easy, and then that's it. Rest, hydration and hoping for my best half marathon yet!

Today's activities helped get me a little more pumped for the race. We drove up to Columbus at a bleary-eyed 4:00 in the morning and cheered Erin through the half marathon as she walked it. We saw her at miles 3, 4, 7, 9 and then 12.something to the finish. It was fun! A beautiful day for spectating, I lucked out. My spectators watching me last year froze! I also got to watch our friend from Cleveland, Elizabeth, finish an absolutely amazing marathon and new PR for her. After seeing Erin at mile 9, we ran to the finish line and caught Elizabeth from the opposite corner finishing. She was the second female and finished in 2:49:53!!!!!! Simply amazing - nice job Espeed!

This year's Columbus Marathon experience was definitely brought to you by the letter T. For technology. It was great running around with our phones, comparing the course map printout to a Google map so we could actually find streets to drive on to get to our next viewing spot. And both E and Erin were signed up on Tweet My Time. Their times were tweeted after crossing checkpoints. Nothing seemed to be working on the website and I couldn't get into my twitter account, but it worked on Facebook! So we could see what pace they were moving at. Pretty darn handy. It was also interesting to watch everyone's comments on Facebook as the tweets came through. Everything is so instant now.

This post is horribly void of pictures. I took pics with Erin's camera but failed to get anything of my own, not even a quick shot on my phone. :(

Here's to a restful week and good weather this coming weekend!!

Columbus Marathon Spectatorship

This weekend is the 2010 Columbus Marathon...my first marathon that I completed last year. It's an interesting reflection. Sometimes I still have a hard time believing I did it.

This year, I'm going to Columbus not to race, but to watch my friend Erin walk the Half Marathon division of the race. She and her husband Roman (track buddy sometimes pictured on this blog), drove to Columbus last year to watch, cheer me on, and take awesome pictures...throughout the entire 26.2 miles. It was absolutely incredible. I am spoiled; they set the bar pretty high for cheering friends in future marathons!!

The weather is going to be pretty fantastic. It will be fun following Roman around to all the spots to see her. We haven't ironed out plans yet, but I assume that is what will happen. I'm also looking forward to being in the race environment. I wonder if I will wish I was out there doing the marathon again. I can at least very much look forward to my own half the following weekend...it's almost here!

Columbus Marathon - the experience

Sunday October 18th, I finished my first marathon! Yay!!!!

Time was 4:57:41 and I met all of my goals.

1. Finished.

2. Finished running across the line, thanks to a lovely downhill finish approach! :)

3. Finished under 5 hours.

It was an awesome experience and very, very fun. I hope this isn't too long and boring of a report. There is way too much to try and capture. This is chock full of photos (26 even!) so hopefully that helps make it more interesting. I can thank Erin Powell for the wonderful documentation of the race day! And Greg was able to snap some of me as well.

FRIDAY

As Greg and I pulled onto 71 North to head to Columbus, it hit me. I started laughing my butt off and said, well I guess there's no turning back now- I'm going to run a marathon this weekend! It suddenly seemed so insane to me. Other people run marathons, not me. My friend Sarah flew up from Florida to run the marathon also, and we picked her up from the airport late Friday night. We chatted until 2 a.m. - it was nice to catch up.

SATURDAY - marathon eve

Saturday I woke up at 8, wide awake. I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. We all got up and headed out for breakfast around 10. We soon discovered that not much of downtown is open on the weekend. After visiting some places we wanted to eat at only to find them closed, we ended up heading toward the Convention Center where the race expo was, hoping to pass some food along the way. We did find a Max & Erma's in a hotel that was open and had some hot soft pretzels with our lunch.

The expo was pretty dinky so we breezed through that pretty easily. We picked up our packets and shirts and posters, then walked the cold, windy route back to the hotel, which was only about a half mile away. Sarah got the best hotel location EVER. Here are the port-o-johns, just yards from our hotel.

Knowing we just were supposed to rest, we holed up in our hotel suite and watched college football games. I was soooo tired. I didn't want to nap, though I could have, but I was hoping this fatigue would help me sleep well that night.

At 5:15 we had dinner reservations at Due Amici with my friend Jennifer who was in town. I had a mushroom stuffed ravioli in a pesto sauce that was delicious. They also had great bread with olive oil. And lots of water, of course.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and chilled out some more. I began to get stuff ready for the next day. I wrote my name huge on the top of my shirt. Friends who have done marathons before advised me to do this and it was great advice! I felt like a rock star out there when people were yelling my name. I got all my gels together. Stretched. I was so tired. So I went to bed at 9, read for about an hour and finally fell asleep around 10.

SUNDAY - marathon morning

At 4:30 I woke up with a very, very painful headache, while in the middle of a dream that we had overslept for the race. My neck/back hurt from the bed and pillow change, leading to the headache. I jumped out of bed and popped some Advil and then laid back down. Originally I was going to get up at 5:30, but figured I should stay in bed until the Advil worked and my headache was gone. It worked and I got up at 6.

First I ate my two little containers of applesauce. I munched on a half of a mini-bagel. Then I splashed water in my face and woke up a bit more. I ate some Sport Beans (yum) 30 minutes before the race start time.

Here I am furiously tying my shoes. I only tied my shoes once the entire day. Usually I have a weird thing of untying and retying them compulsively before a race.

At 7:20 we walked downstairs, met Jennifer (who would be teaming with Greg all day going around to see us) and went to the start line.

Ready to go!!!!!

THE RACE (Photos courtesy of Erin Powell and Greg)

The entire race experience was the coolest thing I've ever done. I was super nervous and somewhat in denial about actually running 26.2 miles. But I knew I could do it.

The morning was cold. Probably about 38º. But dry!

We're somewhere in there.

It took us about 15 minutes to cross the start line. Here's the aftermath of discarded clothing after all the runners were gone.

Sarah and I started out running together. Once she warmed up, she went ahead. I wasn't sure what my pace was - it ended up being a little slow in the start. But I just kept running how I felt, figuring I'd settle in after a couple of miles.

I remember the race in approximate chunks, so here it goes:

Miles 1 - 5: We ran through some really cool neighborhoods with awesome houses. I felt great, and just kept chugging along. The miles were ticking by pretty fast. I was very aware of my feet and legs. My legs were numb due to the cold. My left foot's shoe didn't feel like it was tight enough....

Then I saw Erin and Roman!

They were on the left side of the street so I veered over to run closer to that side. Erin snapped 5 million pictures and both of them were cheering and yelling at me. It was awesome.

Miles 5 - 13: After heading back towards downtown, I saw Jennifer and Greg around mile 8 maybe? They were on the left side and cheering. Greg made an awesome sign. He gave me my sunglasses which I had forgot in the hotel room and I gave him my long sleeve shirt I wore in the beginning to stay warm. I had all intensions of just ditching it on the side of the road, but for some reason couldn't part with it forever.

There is frost on my hat! And that lady in pink is totally checking out my butt.

Then I think we ran through German Village, where I saw Roman and Erin again! I'm in a sea of half-marathoners (blue on the bottom of their bibs), who were soon going to be done.

It was fun to watch for Erin and Roman, as I didn't know where they would pop up, so it was kind of a game for me to keep myself occupied. It definitely made the time go by faster. They again screamed at me and it was so cool to see them.

After running through German Village, we were back on High Street. I wasn't looking forward to this, after looking at the race map, because it was just a long 5 mile stretch downtown. Turns out it was one of my favorite parts of the course. Before the half marathoners split off to finish their races, I saw Erin and Roman...again!

This time they jogged with me and Erin sprinted ahead to take some pictures.

I was complaining about the hill. Not really a hill, more of an incline. Columbus doesn't have hills.

Right at the State House, where we all started, I saw Jennifer and Greg again. They yelled "You look great! Almost there!" which was our ongoing joke for the weekend. I wanted to flip them off, but there were kids around and my big red gloves don't hide.

In truth some people were almost there- the half marathoners. I thought I'd be mad at seeing them be able to finish already, but I wasn't. I was happy to keep moving along. After they turned off, the course greatly opened up. I was practically by myself. We continued on High Street and then turned into fraternity row and back into another neighborhood.

Miles 13 - 17, OSU Area: There weren't many people out along fraternity row, but what can you expect early on a Sunday morning from college kids, right? The street was very rough and I had to watch the ground so I didn't stumble. And then around mile 15...I saw Erin and Roman! Yay!!! Erin shouted at me that I had sped up, which I knew, but didn't know how much. I was feeling soooo good. At this point I was just waiting for things to start declining.

At some point we were running on campus. This was by far the worst part of the race. No one was out except one group that was giving out Gummy Bears, which I took gladly! Candy to suck on gave me something to do. I was beginning to lose a little steam. I was getting warm so the hat came off and arm warmers got pushed down. Apparently Roman and Erin were trying to see me in this area, but the course map was wrong, so they missed me.

Miles 17 - 20: After the OSU area, the course wound its way into another beautiful neighborhood. Most people in this area were chatting on corners with their coffees. It was very pretty, the trees were gorgeous and the sky was as blue as it can be. When I passed mile marker 18, I thought: this is it. Uncharted territory. What is going to happen now? I watched a woman drop her gloves, stop, and then eeever so slowly reach down to pick them up. Those gloves would have been gone if I had dropped them - no way was I stopping to bend over for anything at this point.

When I passed mile 20, a weird, bubbling, emotional cry came up out of me. 20 miles! I'm going to do this! I had two pace bands on- one for a 4:45 finish and one for a 5:00 finish. I was trying to stay in between them. At the beginning of the race I was closer to the 5:00 finish, but since I had sped up, I gained some padding with every mile that I would allow me to finish under 5 for sure. As I ticked away the miles, I began playing the math games, realizing that even if something bad happened and I had to walk a mile, I could finish under 5. So this realization made me pretty happy. Plus until mile 18 I was pretty certain I had been running a strong pace faster than any of my long runs, which made me feel like I had accomplished something there even if the rest of the race fell apart. Everything was beginning to hurt, but I still had my breathing under control for the most part. My legs hurt, my knees hurt a little. My feet hurt a little, but not too bad. My neck hurt - I stretched that the most. But I just kept telling myself over and over that it was just pain and would go away later. More good advice from experienced marathoners :)

Miles 20 - 26.2: I hadn't seen Erin and Roman since somewhere around 15. It had been awhile and I was really getting tired, mentally and physically. I wondered if I would see them at all before the finish because maybe they just needed to head back that way. But then, at mile 22 (and the picture to prove it) they were there!

My spirits were immediately lifted and I slowly chugged down the street towards them. Erin ran with me a little and called Greg. She said I had to say something. I said I couldn't! She said just yell then. So I yelled into the phone when we heard Greg. After their visit I was much more energized once again. The course was making a lot of turns. There was a big downhill at one part, which I thought would be nice...but my legs screamed at me! It was a little scary and definitely not a good thing at that point in the race. Now I understand what people mean about Boston and how the downhills can be just as bad or worse than the uphills in a marathon.

At mile 24, my mind was all over the place. 2 more miles... no wait 4 more miles... wait (check pace band, check watch) oh no I slowed down a lot! No wait, (get out fingers) 24...25...26... YES two more miles!!! Holy crap there's only 2 more!!! 2 is a very small number!!! During the whole race I never thought about how many miles were left. But at 24 I did. I wanted to speed up so bad, but my knees were weak, probably because my legs were so tired, and I didn't want to risk having them get all tweaky and painful. Slow and steady, I trudged along.

Somewhere along here there was a slight incline and people handed out individually wrapped buckeye candies when you got to the top, after running under big OSU colored balloon arches. Yum for later.

At the last water stop, I took my water and then stopped and bent over. I just needed to stretch my back. A guy next to me asked if I was OK and I told him yes, just needed to stretch. He said "we're almost there!" And I said "yep." This was the only conversation I had with another runner that entire 5 hours. The volunteer that gave me water looked right into my face and told me there is only .5 miles to go. I didn't know whether or not to believe him, as people like to shout out all kinds of interpretations about how many more miles they think you have. But after another run along a beautiful street with cool houses, the course turned and BAM! Back on Front street.

This is the home stretch!

Oh wow. So many people and many of them were cheering and yelling my name as I passed. I immediately picked up the pace and a huge goofy grin spread across my face. I was going to finish the marathon!!!! I didn't feel anything anymore. I just looked ahead. And then I saw Greg, Jennifer and Sarah (yay she finished too!) along the side, cheering. I rounded the last corner and saw that it was downhill (sweetness!) and ran as fast as I could without falling over. Erin and Roman were on the side, but I don't think I saw them. I had tunnel vision. I crossed the line and looked at my watch - 4:57:40. Yay!!!!!!!!

Cool balloons...

Closer....

Closer.......

Crossing the line. 4:57:40 was the official time...the clock here shows how much of a delay there was to crossing the start line!

And now I was done.

I got my medal, my mylar blanket, and my free beanie hat. I then continued along the food corral, looking at my options. Mmmm donuts... no ew. That sounds awful right now. Bagel? My throat seemed to tighten. I found the biggest half of a banana and ate that. Then I suddenly thought about what I had just accomplished and got a little blubbery again. I just ran a marathon and it was awesome!! Then I was exiting the food area...cruel of them to put 5 or 6 steps coming out of the food area into the celebration area. I made it up them and then walked back towards the Starbucks we were all meeting at.

Greg and Jennifer, awesome cheering/support crew, outside of Starbucks. It was a long, cold day for spectators!!

I saw Greg and Sarah, then Jennifer and Pete, then eventually Erin and Roman found us too. It was all over and amazing. Sarah and I began gushing about different spots on the course and different experiences. There is just so much that happens along the way, I haven't even covered half of it here. So many people, so many thoughts and emotions, so much dialogue with yourself that you never have in other situations.

Finishers! Sarah finished in 4:37!!

Me and the best race-supporting hubby ever.

This was by far the coolest thing I've ever done. I am pleasantly surprised by how good I felt for the duration. The weather and flat course definitely had something to do with that. It was a perfect day.

Afterwords, we walked back to the hotel, showered, and checked out. Then we went to a restaurant down the way called Barley's for grub and beers!

Erin and Roman: the coolest marathoner-chasing friends EVER!!!!

My medal.

So now it is over and done. I had so much fun. It was an amazing experience: from the training, to the race weekend, to finishing the race – I've never done anything like it and look forward to doing another one!

Week 16 - Columbus Training, the final stretch

Sunday - 5.8 miles
Monday - 3 miles
Tuesday - 1.5 miles...7 laps at the track. So short!
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - 2 miles slowly
Friday - 0 rest
Saturday - 0 rest, walking around Columbus to the expo and meals

2 more days...

Yesterday I ran my last little jog before the marathon. Now it is just two days of resting, though Saturday is going to be a busy day in Columbus.

My bib number is 3910. Apparently you can follow runners on this website if you know their bib number/name. Plus there is the TweetMyTime setup I posted about in my last post.

Sunday's weather is still looking to be cold but dry with maybe even some sunshine! I hope so!

I'm looking forward to this. It's going to be quite an amazing challenge.

Columbus Here I Come!

This Sunday I will run my first marathon. I'm very excited. And very nervous. There are a lot of unknowns: what will the weather be like, will anyone see me, how will I feel, will I finish, will I get blisters the size of Rhode Island, etc etc.

But I suppose there are a lot of knowns as well. I know this is my first marathon and that I really really want to finish it. I know I've trained relatively well. I know Columbus is flat (yay!). I know this is going to be the hardest thing I've ever done, physically.

So, there's not much left to do except rest, pack, wait and sleep well this week.

Here are my goals. The first is the only real goal. The second two would make me very happy.
1) Finish.
2) Finish feeling good and able to run a good clip across the finish line rather than crawl.
3) Finish under 5 hours.

For anyone interested in seeing how the morning plays out, the Columbus marathon has partnered with TweetMyTime to link my checkpoint times with Twitter. The checkpoints are at the start, 10K, halfway point, 20K, and finish. (Of course this is all based on it working properly.) So, there are a few ways to follow me on race day, even if you don't have Twitter (the race starts at 7:30 a.m.):

1) Twitter: If you're already following me on Twitter, then you know what to do.

2) Facebook Status/Newsfeed: I've enabled my Twitter feed for the marathon to also post to my Facebook status. So every time I cross a checkpoint, my status should be updated with my current time and pace.

3) Cell Phone Text: If you subscribe to my Facebook Status via SMS, you will get the updates sent to your phone via text message. It's not a lifelong commitment; you can easily unsubscribe after the race is over ;)

4) This Blog: Come to this blog where I've added a Twitter gadget on the right. You should see the Twitter updates there.

So, that's it! I have a couple more easy runs this week, but other than that I am resting it up. Here goes nothing!

Week 15 - Columbus Training

Sunday - 3 miles
Monday - 13 miles (awful awful run)
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday - 3 miles easy
Thursday - 0
Friday - 2.5 miles
Saturday - 0

One more week to go!!!

A Bad Run

I don't want to dwell on this run more than I already have, but yesterday I ran 13 miles, my last long run before the race in two weeks, and it was nothing short of disappointing.

The progression went like this: I started off fine, and was holding back to run at the very easy 10:56 pace my body seems to naturally fall into for these long runs. Then around mile 5 I started getting tired. This was followed by being really tired. Then I started cramping. Then I was nauseous (I've never been nauseous on a run that I can remember). My feet hurt really really bad and I was getting blisters on the insides of both of them (in my marathon shoes, by the way). I hurt all over. I was shuffling and had to walk a few times. I ended up an entire minute slower than I started. Then when I stopped my legs seized up and hurt soooo bad. There was no relief: walking hurt, sitting hurt, stretching hurt. It was weird.

I know this is kind of whiny, but I just can't imagine what will happen if I feel like this on race day. I am hoping that it was a fluke. I know for a fact I am low on iron also and have started taking my supplements again. Honestly, that could have been it right there and I hope it was. But I also know this is how it goes, some runs are good and some are bad. It just freaked me out thinking about marathon day. Aren't I trained better than this? To run 13 miles should feel easy by now, dammit!

Then again, I've never done this before.

Anyway... here's a picture of an air-puffed Frankenstein walking down the sidewalk.

Week 14 - Columbus Training

Sunday - walked about 5 miles, does that count for cross training??
Monday - 5.5 miles
Tuesday - 5 miles at the track
Wednesday - 0
Thursday - 0, last physical therapy appointment
Friday - 3
Saturday - 0

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.

Track Night

First day of fall and the King's Collision Center temperature clock read 87º! 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!

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.

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

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.

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 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!

Week 9 - Columbus Training

Sunday - 0, disc golf at Mason
Monday - 20 mile bike ride
Tuesday - 0
Wednesday - 4.75 miles
Thursday - 4 miles at the track (repeats)
Friday - 0
Saturday - 16 miles! The farthest I have ever ran...

Miles at the Track

Tonight I felt like switching it up and going to the track. It's been a loooong time since I've been to a track to run any kind of workout. I wasn't planning on doing anything too hard and thought I'd maybe just do a few miles there. I convinced Greg to go with me. It was very fun!

Greg running.

















After briefly talking to Greg about what my ideas of repeats on a track are (from things I've read over the years and my own experience working with Fleet Feet's training programs), he decided he was going to do some 400's. I decided I was going to do mile repeats. That is good distance to repeat for marathon training, plus I wanted to work on my pace and form. I brought the camera along and had Greg take a few pictures of me so I could see what I look like while running. I have a tendency to bring my arms up kind of high as well as my shoulders. Start looking like a t-rex.

















I warmed up 1 mile at a 10:00 pace. Then my plan was to do 3 miles at 9:30, and another cool down mile. The first mile I did was 9:00 – a bit faster than I planned. The second mile I nailed the pace at 9:30. I decided that was enough, since I'm planning to run 16 miles this weekend. So I ran one more cool down mile at 10:15 pace for a total of 4 miles.

Look pretty normal...























Look out small dinosaurs... here comes T-rex...raaaarrwww!





















The track is so nice – soft and smooth. There was always a breeze at some point, even though it was 89º when we went. Greg did awesome, running various distances repeatedly. I think he's going to be sore. His cool down is faster than my mile repeat. Yeah. I'm pokey.

After we ran, we took our shoes off and ran a couple of yards on the fake turf football field barefoot. It is squishy and felt great. I could feel the different muscles being used around my ankles.
Greg stretching.

















So we are planning to try to go to the track on Tuesdays now. This will give me more time between possibly having a hard workout and running a long run on the weekend. It's fun that we can run together, even while we're clearly such different paces. I think I'll stick with mile repeats for the duration of the marathon training. I'll keep working on my form and staying strong when tired.