April 20-26 Runs

[yellow]

Urlea, when is your marathon? For some reason I was thinking it's at the end of May, but if you're tapering, it must be sooner. Tapering...good times.

I didn't do the trail race yesterday because I exercised poor judgment and actually believed the weather forecast. It didn't rain much (although the trail was muddy), so it would have been a good day to go out and run with others. Instead I sulked and grumbled but went to Crossfit, which made me feel better. And I decided to try to get in the 22-miler today, and woke up to rain/snow. Nice. So off to the dreadmill I went. But while I was at the gym it cleared enough to entice me to finish my run on the trail, so I'm happy to report that I did not run 22 miles on the dreadmill (only 14 ). The other 8 were on a muddy trail. I saw 2 Lewis' woodpeckers, which are a sure sign of spring. The mule's ears are starting to bloom, too.

Took my first ice bath of the season. I love ice baths.

Mileage was lower than it should have been this week. And the coming week will be challenging as well since we're going on a mountain bike adventure in Fruita, CO next weekend. There won't be any running there!

[Urlea]

Yellow- The Fargo Marathon is May 9th! Which is coming pretty quick & I'm getting very excited! Been excited for a while actually.

I don't know how you can stand ice baths. I tried one yesterday and it was no fun. Then again maybe I would enjoy it more if I hadn't spent the last 2hrs running in 30 degree temps, but still. Yikes.

Have fun biking in Fruita! Lots of ppl looking forward to that from what I've heard.

[SadieKate]

I saw 2 Lewis' woodpeckers, which are a sure sign of spring.

Hey, us too! They hung out in the yard a long time (looked like a little flirting was going on), even used the groundfeeder and checked out the woodpecker house. That would be way cool if they moved in.

[Susan Otcenas]

Morning everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend of running.

Once again, I pushed my long run from Sunday to Monday. I'm thinking that I need to re-organize my run schedule so that the long run happens mid-week. The reality is that I always have a long, hard bike ride on the weekend, usually on Saturday. I think moving my long run to mid-week would give me time to recover, and balance my efforts a little better.

Instead of running yesterday, I went to swim class, then spent the afternoon shoveling dirt in my front yard.

This morning's run was 7.25 miles. I really struggled with it - felt very tired from the get-go. At mile 3, I walked for 3 minutes, sucked down a 2nd Gu, and drank some water. That sustained me for the rest of the run, though I was very tired by the end.

What went wrong? Well, I went to bed a little hungry, so it's not surprising that I was low on energy when I woke up. I also think the yardwork took more out of me than I'd like to admit (I moved a huge pile of dirt!). And I also think I'm feeling the accumulated effects of not enough sleep. I'm an 8 hour a night kind of gal, and I've not gotten that much in the past week or so.

My first tri of the season is May 9th - a week from Saturday! (and the same day as Urlea's marathon.) I'm going to take it easy for the next 10 days, especially the run training, which I think wears me down more than anything else I do. I'm hoping to start the tri feeling very fresh.

Susan

[Urlea]

Good job pushing through a tiring run Susan!

[Crankin]

I haven't run at all in a few days. Besides allergies, course work and getting in a few little rides, I just don't feel like it. I am going on a long ride Wednesday and plan to run Thursday and get back on schedule.
My muscle weaknesses/imbalances are really bothering me. This is not Fibromyalgia. I*have* to get to a PT, but that involves getting to the doctor to write a prescription. I am just being lazy.
OK, I will run Thursday.

[divingbiker]

OK, I've never really felt like a runner so I haven't posted here, but now I think I qualify. Yesterday I did the MORE/Fitness magazine half marathon in New York City. Due to the heat, they canceled the marathon and said that if you couldn't complete the half marathon in 3 hours, then you could only do the first loop of the course (7 miles.) I had been planning to mostly walk the race, shooting for a time of 3:30.

Well, there was no way in hell that I was going to throw away all the training I'd done, along with the expense of a trip to NYC, so I started off running and never really stopped. I walked a bit, but mostly ran the first 7 miles and made it well before the 1:40 cutoff. The second half was harder, but I continued running for about 4 more miles, till my body started balking. I walked most of the last three miles, because every time I started running my stomach and calves would start cramping.

I finished in 3:03. I really wanted to make it in under 3 hours, but my crampy body wouldn't cooperate. I ended up in the medical tent feeling woozy, and a nice medic gave me salt and an ice pack and I got better pretty quickly. I guess I wasn't drinking as much gatorade at the water stops as I thought I was (warm gatorade is kinda disgusting.)

So there it is--my first and last half marathon. I'm so glad I don't have to do those long training walk/runs any more!

Here are the only two pictures I have from the day (Zen has more, but I think they're pretty unflattering.)

[Jolt]

I haven't run at all in a few days. Besides allergies, course work and getting in a few little rides, I just don't feel like it. I am going on a long ride Wednesday and plan to run Thursday and get back on schedule.
My muscle weaknesses/imbalances are really bothering me. This is not Fibromyalgia. I*have* to get to a PT, but that involves getting to the doctor to write a prescription. I am just being lazy.
OK, I will run Thursday.

You're not the only one! I haven't run in a few days either. As for muscle weaknesses/imbalances, I can relate--I think I may have finally figured out what was creating my IT band issues/weak glutes on the left side and why the problem has kept trying to come back. It's the fact that the adductor magnus has a nasty trigger point (that I now am pretty sure was there before the ITB stuff started, hence the theory that it helped cause the problem) and is just generally tight, which is making it harder for the glute medius (which has an opposing action) to work and sort of shutting it off. Needless to say, I'm irritated that I didn't figure that one out sooner--it was frustrating to be doing the PT exercises etc. and not getting the expected results. Hopefully with some work on loosening that up I can finally get my form right and not feel lopsided anymore--that's one of the reasons I haven't run in a few days, decided it might be good to hold off until things improve. So...anyone with recurrent ITB issues, check your adductors!! One indication of the problem may be if you do the "fire hydrant" exercise and have less range of motion on the affected side compared to the other.

[OakLeaf]

Way to go divingbiker! Good grief, you were waiting for a half mary to feel like a runner! Great job and I hope you keep posting here!

Put me on the slacking off list too. I'm just trying to get myself re-combobulated after the move. Yesterday I pushed the tiller around and spread compost for about three hours and counted that as my workout. (Managed to get a sunburn too, how do I do that after five months in Florida? )

Yellow, ice baths, . I still remember the one time I tried that technique, and it wasn't even ice, not even close, it was an unheated pool, the water temperature was probably around 50° or 55°F. I wound up with hypothermia and had to get in a hot shower for about half an hour. Pretty much defeated the purpose I think.

[Crankin]

Jolt, it may well be the adductors, Right now my left groin is on fire and I am also having neck/head pain, along with some hip/sitz bone stuff. All on the left. I rode to W. Concord to do errands this morning on my hybrid. Just the 12 mile rt made me feel like kicking my bike and getting fat and lazy.
Since I have had MRIs of everything and all they show is a little degeneration, sort of normal for my age and activity level, I have got to do something. I've been doing all of the exercises she had me do last year, stretching, the roller, but the more I do, the worse it gets.

[Jolt]

Jolt, it may well be the adductors, Right now my left groin is on fire and I am also having neck/head pain, along with some hip/sitz bone stuff. All on the left. I rode to W. Concord to do errands this morning on my hybrid. Just the 12 mile rt made me feel like kicking my bike and getting fat and lazy.
Since I have had MRIs of everything and all they show is a little degeneration, sort of normal for my age and activity level, I have got to do something. I've been doing all of the exercises she had me do last year, stretching, the roller, but the more I do, the worse it gets.

What a bummer! I have something to recommend looking into: I recently picked up this book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back (by Esther Gokhale), that is all about posture and using your body the right way, and am so far finding it very useful. You might want to look at it--it's not just for back problems even though that's the title of the book and is a big part of what it focuses on. The woman who wrote it went to several countries where the incidence of back pain is very low and observed their posture and movement; there are photographs of people doing daily activities in those and other places throughout. There are sections dealing with sleeping positions, sitting, standing, using the core muscles to protect the spine, bending and walking (the walking one focuses a lot on using the glutes, and that is the main reason I decided the book would be helpful in my situation). It also has a section with exercises you can do for specific areas that need work on strength or flexibility. Be forewarned that you'll learn how bad the way so many things are set up is for posture--seats in cars are awful (as are the ones on the commuter rail and the T, I have realized--no wonder one can never get really comfortable on a long ride), most chairs and couches aren't so great either, etc. Sort of makes you want to overhaul your whole furniture setup... Anyway, I highly recommend this book based on my experience so far.

[michelem]

Oops! Missed posting for this week's thread, so figure better late than never.

Couldn’t stand to let the nice weather go to waste, so went for an approx. 7 mile run Sunday morning. Left the house at 8am and somewhere between 45 and 50 degrees. It’s an out-and-back route I’m familiar with, from my house along surface streets, to a lovely paved trail. No real hills to speak of (although plenty of “false flats” -- slight upgrades you can barely see, but sure can feel) until the last 3/4 miles home, which is an approx. 6.5% grade up. Anyway, felt pretty good up to the turnaround point, approximately 30 minutes in, but really struggled on the way back. For one, there was that lovely wind again (although it was less than 10mph, so nothing like Friday). And two, I started feeling super-hungry and like I was losing energy big-time. I think this new way of eating (higher protein/lower carbs to support the strength training I'm doing with P90X) is not providing enough glycogen for me to run on an empty stomach like I’m used to doing in the mornings. However, I can’t eat or drink anything any sooner than 3 hours before I run unless I want to be making pit stops along the way. Sigh . . . Anyway, completed the run/jog in just over an hour.

So, I learned my lesson and will adjust my intake accordingly when planning to go for a run!

Wow, congrats divingbiker! Sounds like you picked quite a doozy for your first race!

Yellow, Ice bath??? YIKES!!! There is NO WAY I'd ever do one of those. You are one strong woman!

Urlea, I'm getting excited for you and can't wait to hear how May 9 goes for you.

Everyone else, keep on running!