We're in Lake Placid celebrating our two year anniversary...and not running. Unfortunately I'm using a lot of muscles that I don't normally use and I'm really sore! We might go for a run tomorrow, but we've been saying that every day. I feel a little antsy, like I want to go for a run. I think that's a good thing though. I'll be excited to start up again later this week.
Week four went like this:
Tuesday 14 miles total
Wednesday 10 miles
Thursday 5 miles recovery
Friday 11 miles
Total: 40 miles
We cheered on our brother in his first tinman (half ironman) and we've been kicking back since then. Sunday we hiked Whiteface (my fourth time, Pete's first time), toured the Olympic sites, rented stand up paddle boards, and met up with some family that lives nearby for a four person four-hour dinner. We also drove by the Olympic Training Center, the site of many fun APXC times at the OTC Peak When It Counts Running Camp.
Training resumes Friday and I have an 18 miler on Sunday before my sister's baby shower... I think I'm going to enjoy this time off until then.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Early Morning Run
Bad weather always looks worse through a window. ~Author Unknown
I love that quote because there have been so many times that I almost skipped a run for rain/snow etc. and it ended up being a great run. I ran early this morning before work and it was really overcast. It ended up raining for most of it, but I had forgotten how refreshing it is to run in the rain in the summer. Anyway, I did the 8 miles in about an hour despite the rain. I felt kind of stiff when I woke up and had some weird foot and knee pains that came and went. I don't know what that's about, but everything came together after I turned around and then second half felt great.
The next two weeks of training are going to be kind of off-book because we're going out of town for over a week and we planned on not running for a few days. So, I think I'm going to run again this afternoon, 5 or 6 miles and do my 10x100 meters that I didn't have time for this morning.
Tomorrow is supposed to be 14 miles, but I'm definitely doing less than that. I have to run early in the morning again because I'm helping out at a golf tournament and it's supposed to be 100 degrees or something ridiculous. We are going to freeze in the Adirondacks this week, it's been getting down to the 40's there at night.
I love that quote because there have been so many times that I almost skipped a run for rain/snow etc. and it ended up being a great run. I ran early this morning before work and it was really overcast. It ended up raining for most of it, but I had forgotten how refreshing it is to run in the rain in the summer. Anyway, I did the 8 miles in about an hour despite the rain. I felt kind of stiff when I woke up and had some weird foot and knee pains that came and went. I don't know what that's about, but everything came together after I turned around and then second half felt great.
The next two weeks of training are going to be kind of off-book because we're going out of town for over a week and we planned on not running for a few days. So, I think I'm going to run again this afternoon, 5 or 6 miles and do my 10x100 meters that I didn't have time for this morning.
Tomorrow is supposed to be 14 miles, but I'm definitely doing less than that. I have to run early in the morning again because I'm helping out at a golf tournament and it's supposed to be 100 degrees or something ridiculous. We are going to freeze in the Adirondacks this week, it's been getting down to the 40's there at night.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Injury... yeah... about that
So I'm going through a bit of a trial right now. Every runner despises it, yet we all have to face it in one form or another at some point.
The dreaded injury has struck and landed in my calves. It's an extremely uncomfortable all-encompassing tightness in my gastroc and soleus. No matter how much you stretch or when you stretch, the feeling does not go away. I ran through it for a couple of weeks, but knew the feeling was beyond the sore or tight feelings that are expected from time to time. I found myself very drained from mentally managing the pain through the longer runs. Eventually, even the short 5 mile recoveries became dreadful. It really started to aggravate me to the point that I was losing it. I was seeing improvements from my training (besides the calf pain) and I just wanted to continue in my training progress problem free.
I sucked it up and went to my PCP (who I made sure was a runner before I selected him 2 years back). He assumed (as did I) that it was just adhesions that needed to get worked on in the muscles. I had the pleasure of taking more time out of a day on Wednesday to go to the PT, who was nice, but admitted that she spends far less time treating athletes than she does treating people who are older and/or rehabbing from surgery. She proceeded to go through an extensive regimen of tasks to narrow down the problem (range of motion measurements, massages, stretches, 101 questions, treadmill tests, etc.). I found myself repeating the same descriptions and answers over and over. After 2 hours I went home. The next 2 days I ran more and I hurt more.
I went back on Friday and we did ultra sound and intense myofacial release, to no avail. And, wait for it.... another treadmill test. We spent another large amount of time where she asked- "Does this hurt? Is this the same pain?" She's the type of person who thinks out loud and her questions were becoming more frequently followed by her saying "that concerns me" or "that's not good". She finally admitted that she thought the pain is not a result of the adhesions or any muscular imbalances.
I asked her what direction this was heading and she said it could be a form of compartment syndrome. I don't believe I have a bad case of it (which requires surgery), but it does suck, so after I meet with her tomorrow we will have a final verdict on where I'm headed.
I took the liberty of consulting a friend who's been through the ringer with compartment syndrome. She had a bad case of it and had to have the full surgery where they release all 4 compartments in the lower leg or "calf" muscles. She referenced me to Glasson Sports Medicine in VB that specializes in working with athletes. Evidently their staff is top notch. That appointment is still being arranged by my PCP, so hopefully I can get to a visit and answer soon.
Until then, I'm running, but the runs are shorter. Can we say annoying?
The dreaded injury has struck and landed in my calves. It's an extremely uncomfortable all-encompassing tightness in my gastroc and soleus. No matter how much you stretch or when you stretch, the feeling does not go away. I ran through it for a couple of weeks, but knew the feeling was beyond the sore or tight feelings that are expected from time to time. I found myself very drained from mentally managing the pain through the longer runs. Eventually, even the short 5 mile recoveries became dreadful. It really started to aggravate me to the point that I was losing it. I was seeing improvements from my training (besides the calf pain) and I just wanted to continue in my training progress problem free.
I sucked it up and went to my PCP (who I made sure was a runner before I selected him 2 years back). He assumed (as did I) that it was just adhesions that needed to get worked on in the muscles. I had the pleasure of taking more time out of a day on Wednesday to go to the PT, who was nice, but admitted that she spends far less time treating athletes than she does treating people who are older and/or rehabbing from surgery. She proceeded to go through an extensive regimen of tasks to narrow down the problem (range of motion measurements, massages, stretches, 101 questions, treadmill tests, etc.). I found myself repeating the same descriptions and answers over and over. After 2 hours I went home. The next 2 days I ran more and I hurt more.
I went back on Friday and we did ultra sound and intense myofacial release, to no avail. And, wait for it.... another treadmill test. We spent another large amount of time where she asked- "Does this hurt? Is this the same pain?" She's the type of person who thinks out loud and her questions were becoming more frequently followed by her saying "that concerns me" or "that's not good". She finally admitted that she thought the pain is not a result of the adhesions or any muscular imbalances.
I asked her what direction this was heading and she said it could be a form of compartment syndrome. I don't believe I have a bad case of it (which requires surgery), but it does suck, so after I meet with her tomorrow we will have a final verdict on where I'm headed.
I took the liberty of consulting a friend who's been through the ringer with compartment syndrome. She had a bad case of it and had to have the full surgery where they release all 4 compartments in the lower leg or "calf" muscles. She referenced me to Glasson Sports Medicine in VB that specializes in working with athletes. Evidently their staff is top notch. That appointment is still being arranged by my PCP, so hopefully I can get to a visit and answer soon.
Until then, I'm running, but the runs are shorter. Can we say annoying?
Week Three
Lily: Ted, you may be single and childless, but you're totally a dorky dad.
Ted: I don't think I like your tone, young lady.**
Pete is still working on his injury so I had to go it alone today. Total time was 1:57:42, but I actually ran 15.3 miles due to that extra distance between the end and beginning of the loop so I averaged 7:42 per mile.
The park was really nice this morning, lots of dads fishing or going for walks with their families, which made for some good people-watching. I decided to practice drinking water while running, and I took a GU block every three miles. I find the gels to be so disgusting, so I tried the blocks and success! I like how you can just take one block instead of trying to hang on to a half-full gel pack.
After the run I had about ten minutes to get ready to meet Pete's dad for brunch. We went to the art show at the oceanfront afterwards. It was fun to browse through all the different artists, but as we got further up the boardwalk it turned into lots of tourists in too-small bathing suits eating turkey legs.
Anyway, I would say Happy Father's Day, but I know my dad will not be reading this (which is the same reason I'm not going to bother writing it on facebook). I already called him this morning, and we'll see him on Thursday for a belated FD celebration in NY. Dad is "old school" and prefers to get all of his information and gossip by word of mouth, so facebook is out of the question.
Week Three:
Monday: rest
Tuesday: 10 miles (4 tempo)
Wednesday: 13 miles
Thursday: 5 miles recovery
Friday: 9 miles general aerobic
Saturday: 5 miles recovery
Sunday: 15 miles long run
total: 57 miles
(**from the How I Met Your Mother episode, Not A Father's Day**)
Ted: I don't think I like your tone, young lady.**
Pete is still working on his injury so I had to go it alone today. Total time was 1:57:42, but I actually ran 15.3 miles due to that extra distance between the end and beginning of the loop so I averaged 7:42 per mile.
The park was really nice this morning, lots of dads fishing or going for walks with their families, which made for some good people-watching. I decided to practice drinking water while running, and I took a GU block every three miles. I find the gels to be so disgusting, so I tried the blocks and success! I like how you can just take one block instead of trying to hang on to a half-full gel pack.
After the run I had about ten minutes to get ready to meet Pete's dad for brunch. We went to the art show at the oceanfront afterwards. It was fun to browse through all the different artists, but as we got further up the boardwalk it turned into lots of tourists in too-small bathing suits eating turkey legs.
Anyway, I would say Happy Father's Day, but I know my dad will not be reading this (which is the same reason I'm not going to bother writing it on facebook). I already called him this morning, and we'll see him on Thursday for a belated FD celebration in NY. Dad is "old school" and prefers to get all of his information and gossip by word of mouth, so facebook is out of the question.
Week Three:
Monday: rest
Tuesday: 10 miles (4 tempo)
Wednesday: 13 miles
Thursday: 5 miles recovery
Friday: 9 miles general aerobic
Saturday: 5 miles recovery
Sunday: 15 miles long run
total: 57 miles
(**from the How I Met Your Mother episode, Not A Father's Day**)
Saturday, June 18, 2011
School's Out!
Overwhelming feeling of happiness... the book has closed on this 2010-2011 school year and now it's officially summer!
Thursday's workout was five miles easy. I ran part of it with Bella, then dropped her off and finished my run. She can run really far in the winter but she gets too hot in the summer to go more than a few miles.
Yesterday Pete and I drove to VB to run at a park near the oceanfront. Pete took the day off, so I ran the 9 miler on the trails by myself. It was really nice and peaceful. I felt great and ended up running a lot faster than I was supposed to. The part of the trail that I ran on is mostly flat and is 3.5 miles to the trail center, so I turned around there and ran back to where I started from. After 7 miles I stopped my watch to get some gatorade and saw 49:00 mins! I used to run 7 min pace for most of my runs in college but now that I'm relatively out of shape I usually run 7:45 or even slower on easy days. Continuing on the trail after my brief stop, I made the decision to treat the last two miles like a cool-down, especially because this section of the trail is very uneven. I've been known to take a few tumbles on the trail (and on sidewalks for that matter). I turned the corner after crossing the access road, and saw the 3.5 mile marker... well that made a lot more sense. That probably added another minute to my 7 mile time. I shrugged it off with a whatever, continued on my "cool-down" 2 miles.
Pete picked up some sushi and drinks while I was running, so we went across the street to the beach after my run. I jumped in the water to cool off, and then we ate dinner on the sand. The waves were actually nice for Virginia Beach (which is known for ankle-high waves most days) so we watched some old guys surfing, then it started raining a few drops and a rainbow appeared. It almost felt like we were in Maui again... or not. We stayed to watch the sun set and then went home.
I'm about to do my 5 mile recovery run, and then get ready to go to graduation at the school where I work.
Happy Summer!!
Thursday's workout was five miles easy. I ran part of it with Bella, then dropped her off and finished my run. She can run really far in the winter but she gets too hot in the summer to go more than a few miles.
Yesterday Pete and I drove to VB to run at a park near the oceanfront. Pete took the day off, so I ran the 9 miler on the trails by myself. It was really nice and peaceful. I felt great and ended up running a lot faster than I was supposed to. The part of the trail that I ran on is mostly flat and is 3.5 miles to the trail center, so I turned around there and ran back to where I started from. After 7 miles I stopped my watch to get some gatorade and saw 49:00 mins! I used to run 7 min pace for most of my runs in college but now that I'm relatively out of shape I usually run 7:45 or even slower on easy days. Continuing on the trail after my brief stop, I made the decision to treat the last two miles like a cool-down, especially because this section of the trail is very uneven. I've been known to take a few tumbles on the trail (and on sidewalks for that matter). I turned the corner after crossing the access road, and saw the 3.5 mile marker... well that made a lot more sense. That probably added another minute to my 7 mile time. I shrugged it off with a whatever, continued on my "cool-down" 2 miles.
Pete picked up some sushi and drinks while I was running, so we went across the street to the beach after my run. I jumped in the water to cool off, and then we ate dinner on the sand. The waves were actually nice for Virginia Beach (which is known for ankle-high waves most days) so we watched some old guys surfing, then it started raining a few drops and a rainbow appeared. It almost felt like we were in Maui again... or not. We stayed to watch the sun set and then went home.
I'm about to do my 5 mile recovery run, and then get ready to go to graduation at the school where I work.
Happy Summer!!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
I'm calling it a long run
Yesterday I had to run 13 miles, and for some reason my training plan calls this a medium-long run. I disagree.
I ran during lunch, at the hottest time of the day, but it was still cooler than last week's 11 miler. When I got back to school, anyone who saw me in the hallway was all "wow, is it hot out there?" and "you're all sweaty". Is that the best you can come up with? One of the teachers in my hallway asked me how far I ran. "Five miles?" he guessed. "No, thirteen." His jaw dropped to the floor. I don't get why that's such a big deal.
I am so happy school is almost over. People are getting on my nerves in a big way. Driving to work is obnoxious. The state of VA sells "vanity" plates at a very affordable price, and the trend is for basically everyone to get a personalized license plate. It's bad enough I have to sit in traffic, but then I am forced to read the license plate on the vehicle in front of me. Dear driver of the blue Ford Escape with the license plate "ESSKAPE", why? Clearly your frontal lobe is lacking something. And I'm pretty sure Jesus did not sacrifice Himself so that he might be part of your clever license plate message, "4HM4EVA".
I ran during lunch, at the hottest time of the day, but it was still cooler than last week's 11 miler. When I got back to school, anyone who saw me in the hallway was all "wow, is it hot out there?" and "you're all sweaty". Is that the best you can come up with? One of the teachers in my hallway asked me how far I ran. "Five miles?" he guessed. "No, thirteen." His jaw dropped to the floor. I don't get why that's such a big deal.
I am so happy school is almost over. People are getting on my nerves in a big way. Driving to work is obnoxious. The state of VA sells "vanity" plates at a very affordable price, and the trend is for basically everyone to get a personalized license plate. It's bad enough I have to sit in traffic, but then I am forced to read the license plate on the vehicle in front of me. Dear driver of the blue Ford Escape with the license plate "ESSKAPE", why? Clearly your frontal lobe is lacking something. And I'm pretty sure Jesus did not sacrifice Himself so that he might be part of your clever license plate message, "4HM4EVA".
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Rest Day and Tempo Run
Monday was a rest day, so Pete and I met some friends for Mexican in VB. We sat outside, because it was so nice. Compared to last week, it feels amazing outside. Very low humidity, nice breeze, high 70s. I was only going to have one maragarita, but since it was our day off I went for another. The food was reeeally good too. I ordered the enchiladas, which are my current fave.
Tuesday's workout was a 4-mile tempo at 15k to half-marathon pace. I drove to the same park from Sunday with a 1.5 mile loop. After a 2 mile warm-up, I got some water and used the disgusting port-a-potty. I wanted to go in the woods but I didn't have the nerve to do it with so many poeple around. Ugh that bathroom is so nasty.
The tempo went well. I aimed for 6:40 pace and ended up averaging 6:38's, for a total time 26:33.49. The actual time was 27:06, but I had to subtract the time it took me to run the 50 meters between the "end" and "beginning" of each loop. Splits from my watch (so I can clear it for my run today):
9:54.04 (1.5 miles)
16.78 (between "end" and "beginning") 10:10.82 total
10:03.73 (1.5 miles) 20:14.55 total
16.31 (between) 20:30.86 total
6:35.72 (last mile) 27:06.58 end time
subtract 33.09 seconds
total time: 26:33.49
I am probably going to run during lunch today (since we actually get a full hour and a half for lunch on half days). I might be a little over since I am supposed to run 13 miles today. Two more school days left, and both are half days. Summer cannot get here soon enough!
Tuesday's workout was a 4-mile tempo at 15k to half-marathon pace. I drove to the same park from Sunday with a 1.5 mile loop. After a 2 mile warm-up, I got some water and used the disgusting port-a-potty. I wanted to go in the woods but I didn't have the nerve to do it with so many poeple around. Ugh that bathroom is so nasty.
The tempo went well. I aimed for 6:40 pace and ended up averaging 6:38's, for a total time 26:33.49. The actual time was 27:06, but I had to subtract the time it took me to run the 50 meters between the "end" and "beginning" of each loop. Splits from my watch (so I can clear it for my run today):
9:54.04 (1.5 miles)
16.78 (between "end" and "beginning") 10:10.82 total
10:03.73 (1.5 miles) 20:14.55 total
16.31 (between) 20:30.86 total
6:35.72 (last mile) 27:06.58 end time
subtract 33.09 seconds
total time: 26:33.49
I am probably going to run during lunch today (since we actually get a full hour and a half for lunch on half days). I might be a little over since I am supposed to run 13 miles today. Two more school days left, and both are half days. Summer cannot get here soon enough!
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