Marathon Report Coming Soon...

It's almost been a week. I have the account of the marathon written, but need to add some pictures to keep it interesting :) I will get it done before the week's time.

I'm feeling better already. Yesterday I ran 2.5 miles, the first run since the 26.2. It hurt a little, but my pace was good and I barely breathed hard or broke a sweat. The first couple of days after, I couldn't walk well. If my legs weren't locked, I couldn't support myself. That made for some wobbly attempts at walking on rough ground and some near falls. By the Wednesday, I felt a lot better and today I barely notice anything, so yippee!

Stay tuned for the very long report.

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.