Archive for March, 2009

Important things I have recently learned:

1.  Do not have milk less than an hour before long runs.  This creates a two-part consequence:

• phlegm, phlegm, phlegm.  gross.
• serious stomach ache for at least 2 hours post-run

2.  Which reminds me, don’t eat peanut butter either before a run.  Peanut Butter burps are not good.

3.  Spending 30 minutes on the elliptical machine makes your feet go numb. 60 minutes makes your head go numb.  

4.  Sometimes if you put off what you could do today—until tomorrow—it’s okay. 

I woke up Saturday morning to not-so-pleasant weather and since we had weekend guests, I decided to not do my long run and play tour guide instead.  Plus, it gave my legs one more day to rest, so I could figure out if my problem was sore muscles or shinsplints.  

Good news! It’s not shinsplints.  What. A. Relief.  And I’m glad I decided to postpone my 12-mile run to Sunday, when the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  

Maybe it was the fact that my legs were fairly well rested, or maybe it was because I was on a tight schedule and had to get home and decorate a cake for a birthday party— but it was one of my better, faster runs.

I’ve recently grown fond of running along the Ballard/Fremont canal since I can run on the trail uninterrupted by stop lights for a good 8 miles.  Plus, running over the Ballard Bridge has awesome scenery of the Olympic Mountains and the marinas below.

12.1 miles, 1:40:05.  Good pace of 8:16, but there’s still room for improvement if I want to reach some of my running goals.  

…that does not come easily to me.

Well, i persevered through my 11 mile run this past weekend.  What started out as “ow. ow. oh dear, I don’t know if my quad can handle this.” gradually turned into “what a lovely day.  It’s been 8 miles and the soreness is finally going away.”  

I felt good when I was done (aside from the exhaustion and soreness of running 17 miles within the past 24 hours).  I got home and my husband had a cold bath ready—he’s so sweet—so I dumped in some ice and comforted my legs.  

We decided to walk around downtown that afternoon, and despite feeling like my legs didn’t quite know how to function, I felt fine.  It’s weird when your quads are sore, because it limits the restraint they normally have on how your knee bends and every once in a while, my leg just kinda ‘gave out’.  I had to really focus on keeping my lower leg working right and not hyperextending.   

Sunday, I pretty much didn’t do any activity all day.  My goal was to rest my legs as much as possible.  But by the time my Monday 3 mile run came, I began to feel like my biggest marathon training fears may have caught up with me.  

Maybe.  

As weird as it may sound, I’m not sure what’s going on with my lower leg.  I can’t tell if my tibialis posterior and peroneal muscles* are now sore from overcompensating for my quads, or if shinsplints are here to say hello.  I only ended up running 2 miles on the treadmill because of this.  

*i wish i didn’t know what these were called, but i’ve had too much shinsplint experience to be ignorant.

I didn’t want to do any further damage if it was in fact my shins.  So, I’ve been doing special stretches and exercises to combat the arrival of shinsplints.  Yesterday, instead of doing my scheduled 6 mile run, I spent 60 minutes on the elliptical.  And today I will be back there again for 30 minutes instead of doing my 3 mile run.  Tomorrow is a cross training day and my normal strength class, so I have yet to decided if I’ll attend that.  Maybe I’ll just do the arm exercises and forego the leg stuff…but then people will think I’m a slacker.  

It’s very difficult for me to refrain from trying to stick with my training schedule, but I REALLY REALLY do NOT want my marathon to be a disaster.  So I’m trying my best to force myself to take every preliminary step to avoid that.  I think I’ll be spending more time on the elliptical until I am 110% sure that my shins are okay.  It’s not the same as running, but I suppose it’s necessary.  

*sigh*  

Patience, Katie.  Patience.  And don’t be so obnoxiously stubborn.

Actually that title is a completely false statement, as I’m currently walking like someone whose shock absorbers are rusty and needing replaced.  I have zero spring in my step and I’m a wee bit sore {complete understatement}.  And it’s only Friday.

This new training plan, along with my weekly strength class has really worked my legs more than they’ve been worked in a long time.  I should count next time how many squats we do, but I’d bet it’s close to 200.  

And even though my quads are screaming at me, I know it’s a good pain.  My legs are stronger, my times have already improved, and the strengthening is great for injury prevention.  I just need to focus more on my stretching.  A LOT more.  And maybe get some deep tissue massages…..courtesy of the husband  (take note, honey).  

Today was a 6 mile pace day and I did my best to avoid steep downhills so that my quads are not totally shot for the 11 miles I have get to run tomorrow.  Despite their soreness, I held a great pace and am looking forward to a much slower and relaxed long run in the morning.  

Plus, spring has arrived!  About time, right?  Knowing it’s finally spring seems to make everything just a little better and I think maybe even subconsciously it gives me extra energy to get out and enjoy the new season.  I’m sure I’ll need that extra boost when I get up to 16+ mile runs.  Can’t wait

Marathon training has officially commenced.  

Obviously, I’ve been running for awhile, even building up to 12 miles, but I started a new training plan and am now doing my best to stick to it instead of doing my own thing.  It calls for more weekly mileage than I’ve previously done, including a mid-distance run on Friday to tire me out a bit for the Saturday long runs.  It will be hard work and require me to push myself out of my ‘comfort zone’, but I think definitely worth it in the end.

Basically, I’m trading fun for pain.  Good pain hopefully, as I don’t want to relive the excruciatingly painful experience I had in San Diego 3 years ago.  That is what scares me the most, what still causes me some sense of apprehension about training for this one.  That experience is what has kept me from training for a marathon up until this point—not the time required for training or even the expected pain of running 26.2 miles—but the possibility of me having a mid-marathon injury and not getting to enjoy the race.

The marathon course has finally been published and at first, I was not happy with it.  I mean, of all the wonderful places to run around the Seattle area, they pick this (somewhat) point-to-point route?

I didn’t think it held any possibility of being enjoyable…running on the viaduct and passing the finish line 3 times before I actually finish?? No thank you!  Plus, how am I supposed to run the route beforehand?  I’m 99.9% sure that pedestrians aren’t allowed on 70% of the course.  

But the more I think about it and visualize the race, I’m pretty excited for it, and think it will be a good first year course with great views.  My friend Aubrey will be running the half marathon, so it will be fun to get ready for this together and have our husbands out on race day as our cheerleaders.  And I signed up to volunteer at the Expo, so I’ll get to be one of the smiling faces giving the runner’s a good start to their marathon weekend.  

Only 16 weeks left!

Success!  I have completed one entire month of running every single day (I started in January since February was short).  Final recap:

Day 28 – 4 miles

       29 – 1 mile

       30 – 2.5 miles

       31 – 12 miles

That’s a total of 104.3 miles for the 31 days….Whew!  

Oddly, I feel like this is the only challenge I’ve ever given myself that I have been 100% without a single doubt successful at.

And a much as I wanted to keep my streak going, I decided not to run today.  It’s March 1st—the first day in 31 days that I haven’t ran.  I felt kinda weird, like I should’ve been doing something important.  But I restrained myself and realized that I deserved a little break.   

Ok, mostly it was because I needed a break.  Not because I’m injured or exhausted, but if I keep going, at what point will I ever stop?  I would keep pushing for a lengthier goal—100 days, 1 year, 1000 days…— and the only beneficiary of it all would be my orthopedic surgeon, requiring weekly visits while we figured out how to do a double shin transplant.  So I delved into my seldom-used left brain and rationalized that I should stop this before it becomes an addiction or injury.

No rest for the weary, though.  Superfab right brain tells me that I love running and can’t stay away from it for too long, no matter what the costs are.  Plus, I just registered for this little puppy:

Let the real running begin.