Lamb or Lion? March running...

[emily_in_nc]

Yikes, 7, so sorry to hear this! I rode a century with ITB pain back in 2004, and that ended up NOT being a good idea at all. Even though it was a flat century, I had to see a sports doc and PT and couldn't ride for a long time after that. Hope you didn't do more damage by continuing to run. I know it's hard to DNF, but when you're in that kind of pain, there's no dishonor in it. Hope you'll heal up soon, but you may have to seriously curtail your running for awhile.

No running for me next week as we're off on a little trip tomorrow morning through Friday. I'm glad, as I've had a slightly twingy knee the past couple runs and think it's best to give it a rest, though we will be walking, hiking, and possibly rent mountain bikes one day if any of them fit me (hoping to find a 24"-wheeled kids one if the adult ones are all too large!)

[OakLeaf]

Oh bummer 7. Hope you heal up quick.

The one thing I didn't see on your list was hip exercises? I know Chi Running holds that that's all unnecessary, but my inexpert opinion is that most people are going be able to get healthier quicker by targeting muscle imbalances directly.

Touch wood, I don't know much about ITB issues, but I know with my Achilles, doing my PT exercises brings pretty quick relief. I'm not sure why - maybe just activating the muscles properly in a structured exercise helps bring muscle memory to use them right when I run? maybe it helps bring everything into alignment so it heals while I rest? I don't know, I just know that it does.

Hang in there, and as Emily said, no shame in DNF/DNS if you're injured. I've read that elite athletes are the most likely to DNF, and it makes perfect sense - it takes discipline to take the long view. Take good care.

Me, I woke up just sore all over, partly residuals from my fall the other day, partly I don't know why, but knowing I had to run long today. I just took it really easy and got my 21.5 done, not too slow of a pace but definitely none too fast. One highlight was seeing the skydivers and aerobatics team at the nearby air show. We'd been to the show yesterday and saw them up close - I was lucky to get an unobstructed view from probably 10 miles away. Another highlight - helping a turtle cross the road. It hissed at me and didn't act particularly grateful, but I'm sure it's happier than it would've been if a truck had squashed it.

My neck feels a whole lot better after the chiropractor on Friday. She said there was a lot of swelling - the adjustment helped right away but it still felt awfully stiff - it was popping some for the first few miles this morning and then it started to feel normal, finally. I'll probably still keep my appointment tomorrow, just in case.

[7rider]

Thanks.

Oh, I finished. Sort of a mix of walk/trot/shuffle. I think i was 22/25 in my AG! The run was all contained within a park and I dont think the cars I saw moving were volunteers patrolling the course. They might have been, but I figured the only way to get back was via my 2 feet.

Oak, one thing my gait analysis focused on a lot was hip work and muscle imbalances. I did lots of hip work particularly as I had initially a pretty noticeable hip drop on my right side. I guess I'd been slacking off, not doing them regularly enough for the volume of running I'm now doing? Active warmups and stretching (even on my rest days) had become pretty routine for me, tho, before and after working out.

I feel like I've been betrayed.

Oak - I hope YOU get better soon. Too many injuries and aches and pains around here!

[Crankin]

Feel better, 7.
I had another bad morning, mostly my own fault. I set my Garmin and drove to flat ground to run. All I had to do was press start for my C25k week 3 run. Except something looked funky on the screen, it was dark, and I didn't have my reading glasses. I reset the thing to start over and off I went. The warm up was over, started the first interval and noticed it was 1:00, not 1:30.
Long story short, I had somehow punched in some random interval program, so I ended up doing 5-6 run walks of one minute. Times were ok, around 10:30 for the runs, except one.
Now in addition to being deaf, I am also blind.

[skhill]

A pretty routine 5.5 miles this morning, in a foggy spring morning. One notable occurance: while waiting for a stoplight to turn at a busy downtown intersection, a pair of middle-school aged boys pulled up beside me on their bikes. The younger one was wearing his helmet, the older one had his hanging from his handlebars. But when I gave him a gentle scolding, he put it on, and kept it on for at least as long as he was still in my sight . It's always good to see kids biking to school, but sending out a couple that age at dawn on a very busy street with no lights on the bikes, I'm not so sure that's a good idea...

And the pollen count's so high I'm thinking of heading to the treadmill tomorrow... *Cough sneeze cough*

[yellow]

7, boy do I know how you feel. You work hard to take care of your body and *poof* it fails you. The disappointment can be overwhelming. Who knows, maybe this is something that's been brewing for a while or maybe you had something weird go on--something tight on one side, planet alignment screwy, early spring...you get the idea. Don't beat yourself up about it. The good thing is that this is fix-able. Hang in there. It sucks being injured.

---------

I did a 50k (actually about 51k) over the weekend. Running 33 miles on an island with no shade and on a day with record setting temperatures and no breeze is humbling, to say the least. I did everything right with fueling and hydration but still had a rough go the last 12 miles or so. My body was just not ready for the temperature (and, OK, I was a bit undertained but we won't go into that). I finished with a respectable time, all things considered (5:49, 4000' of climbing, not hard but not easy, either). I wore my calf compression sleeves on a whim and boy, am I glad I did (my calves were the only part of my legs that didn't cramp). On a sour note, I got really bloated from the endurolytes, enough so that it slowed me down significantly. My feet (especially my right foot) got swollen for some unknown reason in the middle of the race. I had leg cramps in places that I didn't know I had muscles. I wasn't the only one having problems; quite a few people dropped because of heat exhaustion and related ailments (cramps, mostly). BUT! I still finished, the trail was beautiful (I train out on this island a lot but I never tire of it), I enjoyed the scenery as I walked up the hills later in the race , the volunteers were awesome, the bison didn't charge, the racers were fun, and the beer I had after I finished was the best beer I've had in ages. I kept telling myself that I needed to treat it as a training run for my June 50 miler. What I learned from the day is that I need to find another 50k between now and then and my vacations and work and whatnot. And I need to go somewhere warmer and do some training (like, maybe Zion? OK, twist my arm ).

[Susan Otcenas]

....the bison didn't charge....

I nominate this for Quote of The Day.