Winter Running Thread

[rocknrollgirl]

Seven miles on the trails this morning. No issues. I could have kept going, but I am trying to be smart about increasing my distance post injury.

I was a bit concerned after the chrio on Wed. But I did not have any issues. Stayed off the big hills again and took it really easy, which is hard. It feels better mentally to run hard and push. I was going to add another 1/2 mile on next week, but my husband thinks that it might be wiser to hold steady at 7 miles next week and try a few of the smaller hills. Makes sense. Same distance but a bit harder.

[rocknrollgirl]

I forgot this funny moment from this morning. I stopped at about 45 mins to grab a gel and I got my gloves off andd got it open. Got the whole thing in my mouth and went to wash it down....hose on my hydration bladder is frozen solid. It was 18 degrees out. I should have blown any excess water back into the bladder before I started and I forgot, So now I am gagging down a gel with no water. My hubbie had a hand held, but he had already moved off and was too far down the trail to call back.YUK. I finally gave up and stuffed as much of the hose down the front of my shirt as possible, hoping that middle aged thermonuclear body heat would defrost it. It took about 15 mins, but it finally warmed up enough to get a drink.

Noe to self.....get the water out of the hose!

[OakLeaf]

Oh brrr/yuk/brrr. Glad you're feeling better and getting back to strength!

First 20-miler of the cycle yesterday, and the whole thing felt like a slog. Not exactly sure why. It was a beautiful day, not too hot, not much wind, but I started off sore from yoga and bodywork (elbows everywhere! You get an elbow, and *you* get an elbow... !) and just never loosened up. By the end of it my biomechanics had completely fallen apart. Bleh. Got it done, I'm not excessively sore today, though it feels like I'm having a little bit of kneecap tracking issue.

Funniest thing I saw yesterday was some people teaching their little dog to skateboard. "Push push push" (walk with one paw on the back of the board) then "hop on" for a little ride.


VBC, yay! Welcome back to the roads, hope the weather stays amenable for you!

[rocknrollgirl]

Oh brrr/yuk/brrr. Glad you're feeling better and getting back to strength!

First 20-miler of the cycle yesterday, and the whole thing felt like a slog. Not exactly sure why. It was a beautiful day, not too hot, not much wind, but I started off sore from yoga and bodywork (elbows everywhere! You get an elbow, and *you* get an elbow... !) and just never loosened up. By the end of it my biomechanics had completely fallen apart. Bleh. Got it done, I'm not excessively sore today, though it feels like I'm having a little bit of kneecap tracking issue.

Funniest thing I saw yesterday was some people teaching their little dog to skateboard. "Push push push" (walk with one paw on the back of the board) then "hop on" for a little ride.


VBC, yay! Welcome back to the roads, hope the weather stays amenable for you!

Seriously, what is with the elbows lately.Everyone needs to keep their elbows to themselves and out of my glute. I am going to kinda put my foot down today and speak up if we start heading in an overstretch direction.

Sorry you had a slog. I hate when that happens and I am sure I have a few in my not too distant future.

[OakLeaf]

Naw, I need the elbows. Whenever I see a new massage therapist I tell them to bring a pair of pliers and a sledgehammer, it's really not far from the truth.

Hope we're ALL finished with slogs for a good long while.

[rocknrollgirl]

Just got in from trail running, did just under 9 miles. Felt good the entire time except for a hot spot on the bottom of my one foot. I had my old orthotics in and my feet got wet. Even though I had wool on, it may have just been a bad combo. I took some nice pics, I will post a few. The sign made me laugh this morning, I just muttered no kidding as I was hitting the bridge in question

[emily_in_nc]

Beautiful photos RnR. Reminds me of the wooded area where we used to live when it would snow. Great job on the 9-miler!

My runs are coming around. I'm back to doing a few unofficial 5Ks per week, no more stopping to walk, and my speed is coming back. Just getting my time under 10 minutes/mile again and feeling better. Temps have been perfect (for me) for running, which means 60s at the time I go. It's supposed to be warming WAY up this coming week, though, so I will have to get out much earlier on the days I run.

[OakLeaf]

Glad your running is going well!!

I've really been struggling with the threshold-pace workouts. Some days it's been because it's been extra hot on those days, and those are the workouts that bring me closest to overheating - long segments at a high heart rate. But having to bail on those means that I'm not in the shape I should be for the days when it's cooler. Hope it doesn't mean anything ominous for race day. Marathon pace workouts have been going well. Sunday was a 14 mile race pace segment plus warm-up and cool-down, I hit all my numbers, hardly had to stop at all to cross the street, and never hit the drawbridge when it was up. Yesterday's T-pace workout, not so much. Bleh. Just have to keep the M pace workouts in my head as evidence that I *can* do it.

[emily_in_nc]

Good going, Oak! It's definitely been a lot warmer lately. This morning I did my run at 8 am (early for me) to avoid the worst of the heat. It helps that my runs, including warm up/cool down walking and stretching, take less than an hour start to finish. I know you're doing super long runs, and that is difficult in the heat/humidity/sunshine.

[rocknrollgirl]

Good going, Oak! It's definitely been a lot warmer lately. This morning I did my run at 8 am (early for me) to avoid the worst of the heat. It helps that my runs, including warm up/cool down walking and stretching, take less than an hour start to finish. I know you're doing super long runs, and that is difficult in the heat/humidity/sunshine.

We are suffering here as well. It went from 19 degrees last Saturday to 73 yesterday afternoon. No time to acclimate. The trees are blooming about 6 weeks early so the allergies have started as well. Not pleasant at all. I really, really hope it is not hot on race day.

[Crankin]

When I rode on Wednesday, it was 77 at the end. I was wiped out. It was a fast ride for the beginning of the season, but, I get a certain horrible feeling from heat exhaustion, that can happen when it's not even that hot. I need lots of time to acclimate. The one 5K I ran was in 98 degree temperatures. No wonder my time of 34 minutes sucked.

[OakLeaf]

34 minutes is an extremely respectable time in 98 degrees! Yikes !

[rocknrollgirl]

So this was a week of testing out my recovery. Tuesday we did a short trail run, but ran all of the hills I have been avoiding. No issues. Today we ran long and added in all of the hills I have been avoiding, no issues. A hair over nine miles on the trail and no problems with my glute or hamstring. And I went into the run very fatigued from lifting this week. I am starting to realize that it may not have been caused by running hills, but by a combination of running hills, and doing my long runs too fast. I think all of the hard work the past 7 weeks is paying off, and my legs and glutes feel strong. So maaaaaaaaaaybe, just maybe I will come out on the other side of this injury stronger.

[OakLeaf]

RnR, that's great! Keep getting stronger.

It's been another up and down week for me. A lot of figurative running around last week left me tired. And with the bodywork from last week and the week before, I'm getting to the point of some major breakthroughs on some very old injuries and imbalances, like stuff that goes back to high school. Which on one level is spectacularly great, but on the other hand is changing my biomechanics in ways that aren't necessarily the best thing to do five weeks out from a race. Came time for Sunday's T-pace workout on another very hot day, and I just didn't have it in me. I dawdled and procrastinated away the morning, thought I might just modify the pace a bit, but stupid Garmin Connect was down and my watch doesn't let me edit workouts on the watch itself. As I told my DH, it wasn't that I was really feeling terribly beat up, it was just, if I could go another day without someone (including myself) beating me up, that would be great. So, I just did the mileage at an easy pace, and even that kind of beat me up.

Monday I took completely off. Normally I'd bike to yoga early-early and do a little recovery run before class. But between the time change and some worrisome soreness in one Achilles tendon, I just took a rest day. Drove down to the wildlife refuge to check on the bald eagles' nest and see what else we could see.

Today was even hotter, and my scheduled workout was intervals ... and it went fine. Hit all my numbers, and I don't feel excessively spent now, even with the heat. One thing I did, that I've been doing on most interval days, is to do my warm-up, then come back home for a quick ice water and a gel, then go back out to do my intervals on the MUP just across the road. Today I also set out an ice-cold wet towel in my little cooler. I'm pretty sure that's what let me complete the intervals successfully. Yay.

The only weird thing now is that my right ankle, the one that the Achilles isn't bothering me, is just sore. I'm pretty sure what's going on is that at least some of the ankle immobility I've had, actually comes from the hip and thoracolumbar restrictions that we've been working on. So all of a sudden my ankle is moving in ways that my muscles aren't used to supporting ... that's the ankle I sprained several times years ago, though it's been very stable for at least the past 10 years. Going to be keeping an eye on it and having some targeted conversations with the LMT. And definitely keeping on with the single leg raise/lower and balancing work that I've been diligent about *after* my Achilles started bothering me. Sigh.

[OakLeaf]

Ugh. My ankle is still sore. I'm pretty sure it's "only" iffy ligaments, but I made the mistake of asking Dr Google, and now I'm worried that it might be the talus cartilage. I was planning on getting a little jog in this morning to make up for skipping Monday, but wound up deciding it was probably a bad idea. The really frustrating thing is that everything else feels really good and I'm jonesing for a run. I put a brace on it to do the vacuuming and laundry this morning and it didn't get any worse, so at least that's something.