January 2012 Running - Snow, stay away!

[indysteel]

Boy, that's quite a run, Yellow. I'm lucky if I see squirrels on my outings. I envy your environment.

On my end, I saw my PT on Wednesday and he did nothing other than some deep tissue massage. He has recommended that I start seeing a female PT for some instrument-assisted deep tissue massage (there's likely a formal name for that but I don't know what it is). He offered to do it himself, but we both recognize that the location of my hamstring injury is in a delicate location. I'm not a terribly modest person, but it is somewhat embarrassing when he massages me.

I am hopeful that this will help in that I always do feel a better--if only for a day--when he's massaged me for any length of time. So, I have a call into my doctor to see about a recommendation and a new PT order.

In the meantime, I ordered a foam roller for home massage. I went with "the Grid" from Trigger Point Performance. I also ordered a massage ball from TPP so that I can use it at work. I used one in my PT's office and it felt great--in a painful sort of a way. Until now, I've just used a tennis ball. I'm prepared to be diligent with both if it'll help. I'm so tired of this injury.

[emily_in_nc]

4 mile beach run this morning. Hot. Still waiting for that elusive cold front. I guess like much of the eastern US, Belize really isn't going to even get their usual version of winter this year.

[OakLeaf]

I lopped another 43 seconds off my 5K PR at Daytona this morning - 23:42. My target was 24:10 so I happy.

Still not good enough for any hardware. It's a dang arms race out there, those gals are getting faster, faster than I'm getting faster! The consolation is that I was over than a minute out of an AG podium. I'd be kicking myself if it'd been close.

Beautiful day for racing - 47° and sunny, not too much campfire smoke. I treated myself to an almond croissant from the French bakery on the way home.

[katluvr]

Wow! Awesome 5k time and congrats on the PR.
Yes it is amazing how the people in my age group keep getting faster and I just feel like I am getting older!

4 mile run this AM to help w/ all the food & drinks I have indulged in the past 2 days. We have company and it's a lot of fun (and calories).
This run felt better than my last run.

K

[skhill]

Wow, Oak, that's huge! Almost 30 sec. faster than your goal... And my experience aging into a new age group this year is that older=faster, around here. I'm faster than most everyone in their 30s, but there are a bunch of women in their 50's that leave me in their dust...

Today was supposed to be a long run. But weather is crappy, so it was the treadmill. I was still planning on going 9 miles anyway, but just ran out of gas at about 6 miles. Weird. I had my usual breakfast, and should have been good for 9 or 10 miles on that, but somehow I ran out of gas early. Maybe the warmer temps in the gym had an effect?

[indysteel]

Wow, Oak! Great job on your PR!

[emily_in_nc]

That's a wonderful time, Oak! I just want to break 30 minutes.

Congratulations!!

[jessmarimba]

I haven't been posting b/c I haven't been running much lately (injuries...bleh) but I went to a Newton clinic this morning and it was really fun. I'm not sure if I liked it b/c they pretty much told me what I was hoping to hear (I seem to have learned to run on my own the way they teach, so going to the clinic was pretty self-affirming!) but it was something to think about, seeing as it's the opposite of how my coach is telling me to run. Just a different perspective.

Shoes are sooooo expensive though!! Yikes.

[Bike Chick]

Awesome time, Oak! Congrats on your PR. There must be something about our age group. It's the same thing around here. If you compare the times of the 50-55 age group in any running or triathlon event, they are usually faster than the 30 year olds. It's a tough group. Why do you think that is?

I ran 8 miles yesterday afternoon after swimming 2000 yards in the morning. I was tired but that's what makes us stronger, right? It was sunny and in the low 40's. A great day for the end of January.

[Veronica]

Nice job Oak! Congratulations!

I did a nice 6.5 mile loop yesterday with a local running group organized by one of the running coaches from the high school. It's a nice change to have some people to run with. We do break into groups and yesterday I found myself running with the coach's wife. The loop included some short steep hills that I have ridden several times but had avoided running up.

I was totally thrilled to be able to gauge my effort level to run up the hills and keep going after I reached the top. I think I'm going to adjust some of my loops to add them in more regularly.


Veronica

[Selkie]

Great job, Oak. Actually, I've been meaning to thank you for your posts on trigger points and Chi running. Since I've been spending time every day tending to the TPs in my calves, I've been running pain free. Incorporating Chi running techniques is helping as well.

This morning, DH and I went for our usual early morning Sunday long run. Gorgeous sunrise, cold (30 degrees), but not windy. I felt strong, went my planned five miles and felt like I could have gone at least another mile. Unfortunately, my DH has a hamstring strain and so he ended up walking most of the time. I didn't want him to have to wait on me, so I figured it was a sign to end it at five.

[7rider]

Wow. A 23 5K. Awesome, Oak. My goal is to come in under 30. At the rate I'm improving, I should do that in, oh, another 2 years or so.

Goal was 6 today, but the route I did ended up coming in as 5.75. That was fine - I haven't been running much more than 2-3 miles lately, so if I came in short, I wasn't going to sweat it. I was just happy to get in over 5.

[katluvr]

So I did a 5K off road race today. It was AWESOME! Very technical course for me (ups an downs, was a single track bike course). Overall I did well. So after all the technical single track I come out and see the finish. According to my Gramin we are only at 2.8 miles, so it can't be the finish. So I hit hard trail, like limestone and all of the sudden I trip and find myself falling full & hard face down...knees, palms, chin hit the ground...all a few yards from the finish! I'm ok, a bit skinned an bruised, but wow...really after almost a 5k I then bust it!!

So my best 5 k on the road is barely under 30 minutes. I did this 5k in 33:44. Now my Garmin said 2.85 miles but it was supposed to be a 3.1 mile course. So if it was really 3.1 miles I think I did really good. Could it be my Garmin was not accurate due to all the switch backs?? Anyways I had a blast. I should do more trail runs!!!

K

[skhill]

Kat, what a way to finish with a flourish! And the course may well be short-- my 5k pr was on a course that's more like 3.02 miles, but I'm still claiming it as a full 5k since it was so fast!

Finally back outside this morning! It was a beautiful if chilly dawn. 6 miles, and I was trying to keep it slow but kept speeding up. I was suprised to see so many treadmills occupied when I went past the downtown Y and glanced through the windows...

[Veronica]

Intervals this morning with Thom and I finished up my monthly mileage goal today - 16th month in a row!

Veronica