(Long and Less Long) Runs - 1/20 to 2/4

[Tri Girl]

Haven't run all week. Nevermind that I have a marathon in 5 weeks...grrrrr. I injured my quad somehow and am going to the orthopedic doc today to see what the damage is (might've been when I ran 3 hours on the snow and ice, but I never once slipped, fell, or slid).

Got me thinking...last time I trained for a mary I injured my knee- this time my quad.
9 months of training for an IM and not one injury or pain. Is my body trying to tell me something- do IM's instead of stand alone marys? I sure hope not- IM's are too hard to train for and recover from to do them once a year.

Have fun running, ladies- I'll be virtually running with you.

[Wahine]

Trigirl, it's really easy to strain quad just by having to work harder to stabilize yourself while running on poor surfaces. For this reason, I just won't run on ice. As much as I hate it, I will run on the treadmill on those days. Better hope you've got a good movie.

And, the crosstraining of triathlon, does give you increased muscle strength that can help ward off injury. I switched to triathlon from a running background because of knee and hip problems. I added yoga to the mix and now I almost never have hip or knee pain.

Let us know how it turns out with the Ortho.

[Bluetree]

Sorry to hear that, Tri Girl. Rets up, heal!

I did a soft week. No running until today. I have a 5k race on Sunday so I downloaded the route and ran it this morning. Rolling hills... yuk. Did the time in 36:11, not the greatest, but at least I am now familiar with the terrain. Ditched the iPod today, too... it's hard to run without music!

[alpinerabbit]

Today was the first run since Saturday. I did not do anything this week, last thing I did was swimming Sunday morning.

I did some speed variations and the same little hill 8x in different styles - felt nice and strong in my legs, but then the lunchtime run is maybe 4K.

[tattiefritter]

4 miles today, was supposed to be 5 with 3 at pace but my legs are so knackered from the weeks riding and running that I barely managed to shuffle round. Need to remember the pacing for Saturdays long run as it was quite easy to maintain. Right calf is really not happy still which is worrying me as if it doesn't get better then I will not be doing the half.

Had a chiro session today and he said my feet are really really stiff (rest of me pretty good though) so maybe that'll explain things

[Wahine]

TF - most people with really stiff feet and who do not pronate a lot, will naturally have tight calves and yours are probably still tight from the footwear issues. I would recommend stretching and seeing a massage therapist for some deep tissue work. It may be enough to get you headed in the right direction. A link for a good stretch is below.

http://www.dcdoctor.com/pages/rightp...k_st_calf.html

The one key thing that is not mentioned on this link is to ensure that your toes and heel are in line and that the midline of your foot (second toe to mid heel) is perpendicular to the wall.

I recommend hoding the stretch for 20 sec, repeat 4 times on both sides and do this 2 per day, until you feel better. Once you're better, you can go to doing this only after activity or every other day (once per day), whichever is more frequent.

I hope this helps.

[tattiefritter]

Thanks wahine I do both those stretches regularly after running but should fit it into my normal day (off to the ladies with me then). My chiro was looking at my feet because of my ankle sprain but he was quite shocked at how stiff they were as he was sure they were ok last time he checked them. He did some work on them and has freed up my left ankle noticeably which has helped and my calves don't feel at all sore today, just tight.

They have a sports massage therapist attached to the chiro practice - did I remember to ask about it - did I heck! Need to give them a ring today

[Kimmyt]

3 miles yesterday! (3.5 if you count my walk warmup/cooldown).

I took an abs class too, and I'm completely wrecked. The woman who has taught class for the past two times I've attended has been a monster. I have a pretty strong core, and after these two 15-minute sessions I am left feeling like I've just been run over by a truck.

Has anyone ever gotten physcially sick from too much ab stuff? Last night I began feeling really bad after I got back from the climbing gym, and I still feel horrid... not sure if it's the abs class or the sushi (hoping it's not the sushi, i like the place i went and would hate to have to stop going!)

K.

[KSH]

3 miles Thursday... 2 miles Friday... all on the treadmill.

Warm weather... please come back to Texas!

[Wahine]

I ran 5.5 miles yesterday. I can't believe how much harder it is to run here with the hills. Yikes.

KSH - I'm sorry you're suffering and obviously you're not used to this weather. But I have to say that it's hard for me to imagine being upset because I had to run on the treadmill for a few days due to the cold. Just teasing, I know it's really cold for you. Life is relative after all. Most people think the PNW is really cold and I think it's almost sub-tropical in comparison to where I lived in Canada. Yet I spoke to my best friend who still lives in Edmonton and she chastized me for b*tching about the weather the other day. How soon we adapt!

[Aggie_Ama]

3 miles Thursday... 2 miles Friday... all on the treadmill.

Warm weather... please come back to Texas!

KSH- It is a little warmer here, so I have been able to run outside. I got in 9 miles for the week. Of course I look at the temperatures and realize I was nutty- it was in the 40's! Treadmill miles suck though.

I really want to ride tomorrow, but it is so cold. All these beautiful new bikes in Texas and the coldest weather I can remember recently. *SIGH*

[btchance]

My ankle sprain scare was just that, a scare. After taking Ibuprofen for a few days and having to stand on it all day (I know, not the best thing), it was acting fine so I went and worked out Friday. It was supossed to be an easy workout, but since I hadn't done anything the past 2 days and knew I was on call today (Sat), I kinda ended up going pretty hard. 4mi on the treadmill, the base pace at 10min/mile, changed the incline around for part of that, then did some work upping the pace to 9:30 and 9min/mi pace. Felt pretty good, except for the treadmill boredom. (Read - I was constantly changing something on that machine, my mp3 player, or people watching and cussing in my head about having to be on it due to wet snow). Afterwards I did an hour long spin class, then immediately ran an easy mile on the indoor track. Ankle held up, and still feels fine this morning.

TriGirl - I hope your quad gets to feeling better. Just take it easy and you should be fine for the mary. Which one are you doing?

Colby - I hope you're feeling better. It's scary to wake up with a HR that high.

[Tri Girl]

The orthopedic doc said it was "probably" a quad strain (didn't do x-rays because he didn't suspect bone). Muscular strain is workable. Will do deep streches all week and see what happens. Will try running today- hope I don't die since I haven't run in 9 days...

btchance- I'm glad your ankle was just a scare! Sounds like you had a great run yesterday!!! Feels good to push it hard, huh?
I'm doing the Shamrock Marathon in VA Beach in March. Should be fun. I can walk it if I have to, but I'd much rather run!

Wahine- temp definitely is relative. I grew up in Yuma, AZ, and when I visited in '94 I almost died from the heat. Funny how you acclimate so quickly to your surroundings. I would die if I lived where you do this time of year. It's in the 20's here and I feel frostbite coming on just sitting in front of the computer (and it's 68F in my house- I'm a cold weenie).

[tattiefritter]

My ankle sprain scare was just that, a scare.

Look after it btchance as my sprain has come back to haunt me. I woke up this morning and it was throbbing so had to take some Ibuprofen and it still took a while to stop hurting. I was supposed to be heading out for an 11 miler but I have a rule (after doing some spectacularly stupid things in my early twenties while martial art training) that if I have to take any painkillers to allow me to train then I have no business training. So....I've decided to rest it from running for two weeks which means no half marathon at end of February for me I think I just overdid it a bit last week and the ankle wasn't up for it. I'll hopefully be able to fit in more cycling to keep my fitness going.

I think I'm going to enter a local half in June which will give me plenty of time to build up my legs/feet in my new shoes - just need to find a couple of 10Ks for prior to June to keep my motivation up.

[colby]

YAY, today I did a 5k! Finally The dog was so pleased. Heart rate a little higher than normal, so we took it easy. Beautiful day, 20 degrees and sunny. Sidewalks are pretty much clear where they were shoveled/plowed last, some dicey road crossings but that's about it.

The damage for this week is up to 9 lbs from last Sunday to this morning. I just hope I didn't lose a ton of muscle.

I'll take miles 22-25 of one of this week's marathons. Not the most forgiving 3 miles, but progress no less.