No Fools here! running week 30Mar -05Apr

[yellow]

Kind of an interesting day with some interesting revelations.

Emily, I am so glad to hear that you went out and rode on the road. I remember the time after your accident and your apprehension. You waited until you were ready, and the reward is huge. I think you'll have many happy miles on your road bike this year.

I am very happy for you!

[Crankin]

Emily, I have come to the same conclusion as you. I like running, but it's overall so much harder for me. I live where essentially, there is no flat, so it's never easy. I can pretty much handle 3 miles, with hills, but I am not sure if I can or will do more. My legs just feel like cr*p if I go to ride the next day, which happened yesterday.
I am not going to stop running and I do envy those of you who can go out and run 10 miles and then ride 50 the next day. Riding is too much a part of my life, in a way that running isn't that it's always going to come first, even if I am getting older and slower.

[Jolt]

Well, I took about a week off because of having banged up the ball of my right foot on a rock during a trail run. That healed, so I went for a run yesterday with my sister (I went to NJ to visit my family for a few days) on a local rail trail. For some unknown reason, that #@*! left IT band acted up, after having behaved itself just fine for the past three months on runs up to 45 minutes. Not sure if it was from slacking off for a few days on my stretches/hip abductor exercises, having started cycling again last week after not doing any over the winter, crashing on the couch in a tight curled-up position the night before (because I had to share the couch with other people also crashing in front of the TV), the change in surface (that rail trail is very hard packed dirt/small gravel, and a lot of it was sloped sideways a little), or some/all of the above. I did find a trigger point in that TFL muscle, which was most likely the direct cause of the ITB getting grumpy. So, it will be a few days of working on those trigger points and stretching like crazy, along with doing extra glute exercises, before I try running again. That should get things under control, I hope. And then no more slacking on those exercises!

[emily_in_nc]

Emily, I have come to the same conclusion as you. I like running, but it's overall so much harder for me. I live where essentially, there is no flat, so it's never easy. I can pretty much handle 3 miles, with hills, but I am not sure if I can or will do more. My legs just feel like cr*p if I go to ride the next day, which happened yesterday.
I am not going to stop running and I do envy those of you who can go out and run 10 miles and then ride 50 the next day. Riding is too much a part of my life, in a way that running isn't that it's always going to come first, even if I am getting older and slower.

Yes, I think that I just have to accept that I can't do everything with excellence; there are some activities that will always come easier than others, and some that will always be more fulfilling than others. But it doesn't have to be all or nothing; if we don't LOVE running like we do cycling, that doesn't mean we should just quit running. I think cross-training is the best of all worlds. Running is better for bones than riding, it's better in the winter than riding (for me, anyway, not a fan of cold weather), but much worse in the summer (pant pant). I have access to a free gym at work, so running on the treadmill my lunch break is something I can do since I can't ride mid-day. We can do all of it, just not necessarily excel in everything at once. And that's ok.

[emily_in_nc]

Emily, I am so glad to hear that you went out and rode on the road. I remember the time after your accident and your apprehension. You waited until you were ready, and the reward is huge. I think you'll have many happy miles on your road bike this year.

I am very happy for you!

Thanks Yellow! I've actually been riding on the road on and off since my accident (April 2005), but MUCH less than before my accident, when I used to do centuries, touring, events, etc. I was actually back doing short road rides just four months after my accident. But I hadn't done any road riding since Oct. '07 since my DH stopped riding for awhile, and I won't ride alone anymore. So it was great to get back to it, and I'm glad DH has caught the bug again! I still have apprehensions (I practically sprinted for a mile uphill on a road he had encountered dogs on once), but I am working on them and trying to stay strong, because riding is just so darn fun!

[OakLeaf]

Welcome back to the road Emily!

Crankin, there's nothing wrong with knowing what your priorities are! Now, if you want to run more but cycling still comes first, I'd say do your long run the day after your long ride, not before; and really emphasize your recovery nutrition after long rides. But this is supposed to be fun eh.

I know for myself I'm really looking forward to getting back to the hills on the bike, but really dreading them for running. We'll see how it goes. The shortest loop from my house is about 8 miles and the hills are pretty steep whichever way I go. I think I can handle that now for my long run. I'm definitely ready for a change from the out-and-back I'd been doing.

In the meantime, I'm still in the flatlands, and I hit half-marathon distance today. Way slow, but oh well.

[Crankin]

Good idea, Oak. Right now, my longest run is 3.2 miles... but I'd like to work up to a 10K, maybe. So, that would put my long run on Thursday this week, since I will be doing a 47 mile club ride Wednesday (gotta prepare the body for all of that matzah Wed. night).
I guess it will depend from week to week. I don't always do long rides during the week. I've been running on Mondays almost every week since January, but I don't feel well today; I was up all night and now I realize I just feel sick, like a viral thing is approaching. Plus I went for my eye exam, and my eyes were dialated almost all day from those drops. I actually took a full rest day. No yoga, either.
Well, I did do 50 sit ups...