January 2012 Running - Snow, stay away!

[Selkie]

Got in a chilly/cold 3.5 miles on Wednesday at work--27 degrees but little wind (waited until after lunch instead of my usual mid-morning run). For once, my tendency to layer up paid off---I was comfortable.

Trigger point issue in my left calf is irritating my ankle a bit. I've been doing deep massage on the TP & stretching. Need to work on relaxing my calves.

[limewave]

Rarely do I see such courtesy from a driver whilst out running or biking: yesterday I was running on a busy road. Normally I don't run on it, but it had dry and wide shoulders. The side roads were all covered in slush and ice. About a 1/4 mile ahead a garbage truck pulled out onto the shoulder to continue his route for the day. Noticing that I was coming and that there was no way around him other than to blindly step out into the road, he backed up and pulled onto a side street. He waited for me to pass before pulling back out

[skhill]

Week 1 of my unstructured training plan is in the books! Today's long run of 9 miles took me to 29 miles for the week. The plan: between Jan 1 and the HM on March 31, do a long run (8+ miles) 3 out of 4 weeks, stretching the length out to 14 miles. Also, increase the weekly mileage from December's 25ish to 35. And do some kind of speedwork at least every other week. So far, so good.

[OakLeaf]

I did 16 today and actually felt reasonably good, though I was tired before I'd even finished 13. My mood was about 1000% better than it was for my last long run, and I even threw in a little bit of a kick for the last mile. It was just about 68° and this is the weather the DeSoto arm coolers were made for - they totally kept it from being uncomfortably hot.

I swear, if I'd remembered how hard it was to ramp up mileage past 14, I'd never have let myself get so out of shape.


BikeChick, good luck at Disney tomorrow!! (Isn't someone else from here running, too??)

[emily_in_nc]

I have not been able to run in January yet due to a bad cold that has finally departed. Today is the first day since around Dec. 29th that I've felt like myself. I will start back running on Monday am (my usual running days are MWF) and hope for no coughing. I am sure I will be slow as mud and have zilch endurance, but gotta get back to it. I am really sad that I have started the new year with such a whimper!

[7rider]

Today was my follow-up gait analysis. I had the initial done in October. Lots of issues. The trainer gave me a whole bunch of exercises - mostly focused on hip and hamstrings. I did them great for the first 6 weeks or so, but them...um...kind of slacked off. I was worried that today things would look pretty much the same and I would confirm my suspicion that I am a hopeless case when it came to running. (Told DH I felt like I was taking an exam for which I was ill prepared).

But...

Things looked very much improved and Doug, who did the analysis, said he noticed it right away and that he's jealous because he couldn't run because of an ankle injury. So, my hip drop was not as noticeable, I had better arm movement, better leg movement (stride length - which showed better flexibility and hamstring strength). I was pretty stoked. So I went home and did a 4-mile training run. Felt great. Was very happy...it was a big boost to my confidence. Yay!

[Blueberry]

Congrats, 7rider! That's awesome

(still waiting on my all clear to run from my ankle injury)

[OakLeaf]

Yay 7! Good work. Makes me want to hire a running-specific trainer.

[GLC1968]

Wow, Limewave - that was nice of him! In contrast, I almost got hit by a big BMW SUV pulling a horse trailer and speeding, on a totally flat, straight section of the road I run on. There was ZERO reason for cutting so incredibly close to me and the draft almost knocked me off my feet!

Great job, 7rider! That's awesome!

I ran 4 miles on Saturday with my husband and felt fantastic. I totally could have gone further if we weren't running out of daylight. Then I did 3.3 miles on my own yesterday from my house. Sucky run. Besides the above incident, I genearlly hate running from my house because I spend the entire run worrying about not getting hit instead of really focusing on my run. It's a tad more hilly too (which I typically enjoy) but it just felt off.

[OakLeaf]

Mile repeats for me today. Or as I call them, "the ghost of races yet to come." Because I dread them more than any other workout ... and they are shades of results that may be, if my training plan remains unchanged.

I set out not knowing whether I'd do three or four, and wound up doing four, but I'd forgotten I'd re-set my watch so the workout had only three repeats in it. So the last one I ran on the segment that was supposed to be cool-down, with my watch beeping at me the whole way, and just ran eight minutes in zone 5 since it was displaying time and HR zone but not distance.

Felt pretty good, for a warm day.

[emily_in_nc]

My first run since catching DH's cold and just not feeling like doing much of anything for 1.5 weeks. I did 3.5 miles on the beach, slowly, and was surprised I felt as good as I did. I think using my albuterol inhaler ahead of time helped a lot. I honestly thought I'd be lucky to get 2 miles in, so I was pleased. Back in the "saddle" (so to speak)!

GLC -- how scary! I have to watch out for bicycles on the beach where I run, but am very glad not to have to worry about huge vehicles that could take me out in a heartbeat. Be very careful out there.

[Crankin]

My foot is actually feeling better. I did a 3.5 mile very hilly and rocky hike yesterday, and I had a minimum of pain afterwards. I will be riding outside twice this week, so I won't be going to spin, which seems to aggravate this.
I have hope that I'll be able to run again.
But, not until late winter. Not going to ruin what little x country ski season there's going to be.

[yellow]

As of this week, I am back on a training schedule. My first big event (a 50k) is toward the end of March. The BIG news is that my hubby, who has always despised running, signed up to do the shorter distance at the March event, so we've been running together a little (today we did 4.3 miles together). This is his first race ever! I think I'm more excited than he is (but he really is pretty excited about it, and I really had nothing to do with him entering this event--it was his idea).

[Selkie]

Ran 3.5 miles on the rolling, windy trail at work.

I ran in the morning, before the SNOW started! Yes, SNOW. It was 36 degrees out when it started, so it wasn't sticking to pavement, even though the flakes were thick and coming down steadily. Regardless of the just-wet roads, the hordes decided to flee work at my normal quitting time. Doofi (plural of doofus).

[Bike Chick]

I DID IT!!! I completed my first marathon at Disney! What a feeling! My time was slow but I don't care. DH was running the Goofy Challenge and ran the marathon with me at my pace. We took our time and took advantage of all the photo ops with the Disney characters. These folks really know how to put on a race and I would highly recommend it to everyone--especially for your first marathon. The hip I had been nursing behaved itself and wasn't really a factor. I'm now a firm believer in physical therapy. The only issue I had was a blister that started early and decided to break at mile 24. I know this is a bad place on my foot and had a nice callous built up but I hadn't ran much the past 3 weeks and the area had gotten soft. I am amazed what happens to your body over 26.2 miles and how unbelievably bad your body smells when you are finished. It's so different from a half marathon.

DH and I crossed the finish line together and spent yesterday at Epcot
"refueling.". We are packing now and heading home. It was truly a magical experience.

I will post a photo when I get home. Thank you everyone for your support and encouragement.