Enter Doubt, stage left

My legs hurt and I feel like a big ol’ blob cause I keep eating more calories than I am burning.  I am used to running more and sitting around less.  In this time we call taper, the doubt is invading my mind.  Can I really run 13 miles without falling over and dying?  Why are my legs hurting so much?  Why did I think this was a good idea?

My past two short runs (before today) were craptastic.  One of my hamstring muscles has been bugging me for a while now and it is taking me back to when I ran the Run and Plunge 5K in Feb. of last year.  After that race I thought my leg was going to fall off because I ran with an injury.  I am hoping that with all the resting I have been doing before the half that my muscle will be okay on race day.  As of right now I can run without changing my gait and while running I am not in pain.  Sometimes when I am walking my muscle gets a little achy.  Seems like most everything I have read says that if you don’t have to change your gait or compensate then it is okay to run.  I am going to go with that.

My run today started out terrible.  My legs felt like tightly wound rubber bands and just didn’t want to move.  I was forcing myself to go slow, be relaxed and to breath easy.  It was tough!  Finally, after about a mile and a half my legs loosened up and I got the “I can do this forever” feeling.  Oh, how I have missed that feeling.  At the beginning of my run I was thinking – how the hell am I going to run 13 miles on Saturday if my legs feel like THIS!  Near the end I was back to thinking – I can run 13 miles because I have trained for it.  Now I just have to keep repeating that over and over again.

My husband asked if I was excited about the race a few days ago.  I told him I was more nervous and I wished I had a friend to do it with me since 13 miles is a long way to go alone.  He said he would do it with me if we could find someone to watch Ian!  He hasn’t trained for it at all.  As amazing as it is for him to offer to do that for me, I just can’t let him.  One of us needs to be able to move the next day to chase our 3 year old around ;).  That’s love though.  Honey, I will run 13 miles with you, even though I have never done it before, just so you don’t have to do it alone.

I think I will end this with a daily affirmation Stuart Smalley style – “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough and doggone it, people like me!”

Who put blocks of cement on my feet?

My running this past week has not been good.  On Wednesday I ran almost 3 miles at a decent pace, but my legs were still tired from the long run the previous Sunday.  I did a 2.5 mile run yesterday with some walking to the park included.  The run yesterday was just really rough in general.  My legs felt heavy, my thigh was hurting and I just could not find my rhythm.  Those days just happen sometimes and I have read that this is common during taper.  I was supposed to go for a run today, but I ended up doing a bunch of stuff around the house instead.  If it wasn’t supposed to be rainy tomorrow I would try to get in the missed miles.  These are the times when I could use a treadmill.

I have 5 days until the Crystal Coast Half!  I have started the weather check and right now it says partly sunny with a high of 51.  The morning will be chilly with temps in the mid to high 30’s.  I like running in the cooler weather and hope that the rain and wind stay away!  I am going to focus on being well rested this week and drinking lots of water.  I have no idea what my pre-race meal is going to be (the night before).  Any suggestions?  I will stick with what I know works the morning of the race.  I usually eat a bagel with cream cheese, have a cup of coffee and maybe a banana if I feel like I need something else.

Speaking of food, we had the best meal tonight.  Last night my husband made black bean cakes using the Lucky 32 recipe.  They were tasty and we had some left over for tonight.  I felt like they needed some fresh salsa, which is how they are served at Lucky 32.  So, I made some salsa tonight (my first time making it).  WOW!  The salsa combined with the black bean cakes and some sour cream was amazing. I think it was better than what we can get at the restaurant.  He also made some hot artichoke dip that was fabulous.  I am so stuffed and may have gained 5 pounds in one night.  If you like fresh salsa, here is the recipe:

3 Roma tomatoes
1/2 cup of onion finely diced (I use red)
1/2 cup of fresh cilantro chopped
1 or more jalapeno peppers minced (your preference for heat)
1 clove fresh garlic minced
1 lime or 2 tsp lime juice
1 small avocado chopped
1 tsp salt (or more to taste)

I combine all the ingredients putting the salt in last and then squeeze the lime juice over the top and mix.  Chill for 1 hour.  I use a whole lime and squeeze all the juice out, but I love the flavor.  This would be great for any Mexican dish and is great for scooping onto chips!

Happy Long Run Day

When Valentine’s Day rolled around I had already killed the box of chocolates I sent my husband out for a week in advance.  I had a craving and the loving man that he is went to the store and got chocolate for me :).  My 11 mile run was dedicated in part to running off that box of chocolates.  I was able to erase all of the caloric removal effort of running later that evening by eating 3, yes 3, cupcakes that night after a family dinner at my Dad’s house.  Oh well.

11 miles is the longest distance I have ever run.  I wasn’t sure how it was going to go since my last long run was a little less than 9 miles and my legs were screaming at me by the end.  Overall, I think it went fairly well.  I didn’t die and I always find that to be an accomplishment I can be proud of!  I am sooo happy to have the Garmin now.  It was great to just run wherever I wanted to go and not have to remember every street I turned down and which way I went for mapping later.  I also liked the fact that I knew I had completed the distance when I was finished.  There were so many times when I would map a run after completion and found that I was a mile or more short of my goal.

I also got to try out my SPIbelt for the run and was happy with it.  It really doesn’t bounce and I didn’t even know it was there.  I used the SPIbelt along with my fuel belt.  In my fuel belt I carried 2 bottles of water and strawberry Gu Chomps.  The SPIbelt held my iPhone.  The Gu Chomps have been working well for me and I will definitely use them on race day.

Miles 1 to 3 were good and that is usually when I am getting my legs under me and working on my rhythm.  The first mile was what my pace target should be for my long runs – 13:00 and that includes walk breaks.  I found after that first mile that I was doing consistent splits of about 12:30 a mile.

Miles 4 to 5 are usually when I feel the best and I was feeling good.  I ate some chomps at 45 minutes into the run since that I is my hit the wall point without them.  I was still managing consistent splits of around 12:30 a mile except for when I walked longer to eat the chomps, but that only added 15 or seconds onto that mile.

Miles 6 to 8.  Miles 6 and 7 I was still doing okay.  This is the point though that my walk breaks start to become painful.  I have no idea why it hurts more to walk than it does to run.  For some strange reason I also started to speed up and I have no idea why.  I hard to force myself to slow down.  Mile 8 I finished off the chomps and was having some cramps in my hamstrings.

Miles 9 to 11.  The sun was starting to go down and I was getting pretty cold.  I knew I had enough gas in the tank to finish my planned mileage, but around mile 10 my legs were really starting to hurt.  The walk breaks were very painful and my knees were starting to hurt.  I sucked it up though and pushed on through.  My last mile was my fastest at about 11:53 pace.

Total – 11 miles in 2 hours and 20 minutes – avg. pace 12:43

My neighborhood is hills, hills and more hills.  It is all rolling hills but still there are very few stretches that are remotely flat.  I am hopeful that when I run the Half in Morehead that I will be able to run a bit faster than I am in training since that course is flat as can be.  I just want to finish in under 3 hours and I am pretty sure I will be able to do that.  If I am having a really good day, maybe I can finish in 2 hours and 30 minutes or less.

I did make a big mistake after that long run.  I made plans to go to my Dad’s house for a family dinner right after I finished my run.  That meant that I didn’t have time to stretch properly when I finished or to ice the parts of me that could have used some ice.  I also had to get cleaned up and pretty after running for 2 hours and 20 minutes.  Doing my hair and makeup was not something I really wanted to do in those 45 minutes after a long run.  I really just wanted to lay on the floor and moan for a while.  I told my husband to remind me to NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!  The lack of proper care of my body after that run came back to bite me in the ass on Monday.  It is a good thing I had the day off from work because I thought someone had driven stakes into my knees when I got out of bed.  I really wanted to install a motorized chair to go up and down the stairs in my house yesterday.

My legs are better today, but still sore.  I may try to go out for a run tomorrow if my legs are feeling better.  I am doing my taper now and will do 2 easy runs during the week and 7 or 8 miles this weekend.  A couple of easy runs next week and then 13.1 on Saturday, February 27th!

One final note to the weather Gods – PLEASE, no more snow!  I want sunshine and blue skies for the next couple of weeks or at least on race day :D.

Running cancelled due to…wind?

I was planning on running today.  I have taken the past couple of days off to give my poor legs a rest from the beating they took this past weekend (long run and KKC).  My plans to run today went out the window when the weather people said that we would have sustained winds of 25-30 mph and gusts up to 50 mph!  Seriously 50 mph!  It’s like a winter tropical storm or something.  Anyway, I told my running buddy that we would have to skip today cause we might blow away!  Plus it is only 30 some degrees outside and then you factor in the wind chill and it suddenly feels like the 20’s.  No Thanks!

Once again I am going to be packing my running into a short amount of days.  Ugh!  My plan right now is to run tomorrow and Friday easy and then go for my long run of 11 miles on Sunday.  Let’s hope that the weather cooperates.

Just leap…

First I have to say that I REGISTERED FOR THE CRYSTAL COAST HALF!!  I am excited, nervous and wondering if I am going to be the slowest person on the course.  I might be the person that has the cop car following them closing the course.  This is a small race.  Last year they had a little over 400 runners and about 3/4 of them were running the half.  There is a 5K too.  I looked at last years race results and it appears that there were only about 15 people that would have been slower than me.  I don’t know why this concerns me so much, but I have a fear of coming in dead last.  I am hopeful though that my time will be faster than I think since the course is FLAT.  The only hill in the entire race is the bridge that connects Morehead City with Atlantic Beach.  I will have to run up and down that baby twice.  I don’t know how many times I have driven over that bridge.  Now I get to run over it!

When I woke up yesterday morning my legs were a bit sore from the KKC and I really did NOT feel like doing my long run.  I just wasn’t in the mood to go out and freeze my arse off after standing in the freezing cold the previous morning.  We also had a playdate planned for the morning and that just made me want to be even more lazy.  Once the afternoon rolled around I decided I was just gonna go out and run whatever distance felt good to me that day.  No pressure to complete the planned 9.5 miles.  There is a weird phenomenon associated with not wanting to run and then having a really good running day.  That was what happened to me yesterday.  Once I got going and my legs actually felt pretty good and I managed to keep my pace nice and slow.  I didn’t map my run before I went out and figured I would just go until I didn’t want to go anymore.  I ran for 1 hour 54 minutes.  In total it was 8.65 miles.  My pace was about 13:10 per mile.  I am pretty happy with that.  I had a feeling I was up over 8 miles near the end and wanted to keep going to get to 9.5, but my hamstrings were starting to get really tight and I figured it was best to take my accomplishment and go home.  My legs were extremely sore last night and I thought I would barely be able to walk today.  I am pleasantly surprised that my legs are sore, but not the worst they have ever been.  I didn’t fall down when I got out of bed this morning and I thought that was a good sign :).

Now I just need to figure out what my running plan is going to be for the next 2 weekends.  I can’t decide if I am going to go for 10 this weekend and then 12 next weekend (the last weekend before the race) or if I should shoot for 11 this weekend and then start my taper.  Any advice?  I really have no idea how long I should taper to be nice and fresh for the Half.

Couch to 5K redux

I think that I have mentioned that I have been doing the C25k workouts again with coworker Caroline.  She has been running the program and I started doing them with her to keep her company and well to get back to running without walking.  We did Week 7 last week which is 25 minute runs with no walking and this week we are doing Week 8 which is 27 minute runs with no walking.  On Tuesday it was rather cold and blustery, but we bundled up and headed out for our first 27 minute run.  I had the kind of run that I wish for every time.  I was relaxed, my legs felt great and I could breath without a problem.  It was the kind of running day where you feel like you could just run forever.  It was amazing.  On top of feeling great, I ran for 30 minutes and a distance of 2.5 miles.  I wanna get up to running 3 miles without stopping and I have started my training again for a half-marathon.  I did a long run of 5 miles last weekend and it went really well.

My ankle still isn’t feeling normal.  I don’t have any problems when I am running (knock on wood).  However, the next day after a run I feel some twinges of pain.  It isn’t constant pain or anything but there are definitely moments that make me say OWWW!  If I have pain while running again I will seek out a second opinion, but I am trying to avoid it because I have a feeling the Doctor would want to order an MRI.  We just can’t afford to pay the deductible since we got the bill from Ian’s hospital visit.

I can’t believe it is December already!  I also can’t believe that I have stuck with running for a full year.  Amazing.  The running has definitely paid off and I can tell in a number of ways.

1)  I feel better physically and mentally.  Running has helped me deal with stress in a big way.

2)  I have lost a lot of weight.  In total I am down about 20 pounds.  I also bought a pair of jeans in a size 8 yesterday.  I haven’t worn a single digit size in about 15 years.

3)  Running helps me remember that you can do anything if you don’t give up.

Finding My Pace Again

I am trying to restrain myself and take things slowly.  So far I have been good about limiting my weekday runs to 2 miles and my “long run” has been about 3 miles the past two weeks.  My ankle is still a bit achy sometimes, but it doesn’t hurt while I am running, just when I am taking a walk break.  I am very in-tune with how it is feeling and don’t want to make the problem worse.  Right now I think that the tendons are just getting used to running again and being stretched out.  I haven’t had any pain that lasts or reminds me of the initial injury.  Hopefully, it stays that way.

At first my pace was back to what it was when I first started running.  I am starting to get my legs and my breathing back though and have gotten back to around a 12 and a half minute mile on the short runs and am still up around 13 and a half for anything longer.  Ultimately I want to get to point where I can run a full 3 miles without walk breaks.  I lost the ability to run continuously after the thigh muscle injury in February.  I might pick up my iPod and use some of the couch to 5K podcasts to help me get back there.  It is a real pain in the butt to keep looking at your watch and time yourself.  I have also found that my counting is not reliable at all.  When I thought I was running 2 minutes and walking a minute while training for the half, I was actually running about 4 minutes and walking 2 minutes.  Anyway, I am happy my rhythm is coming back fairly easily and now it will just be a matter of increasing my distance again.

I am considering the Shamrock Half in VA since the OBX Half is out.  I hope my body cooperates this time around!

Falling off the running wagon…

I was doing so well with keeping my motivation and staying on top of my training.  Then, life got in the way and another injury snuck up on me.  After that last 9 mile run I missed a few long runs in a row.  When I got my ass back in gear one weekend I managed a 6 mile run, but then fizzled out again.  I never stopped running, but just wasn’t putting in the high mile runs I should have been.  Plus it has just been blazing hot outside which makes it really difficult to find the energy to keep going.  I also don’t fancy getting up at 5 a.m. to go for a long run on a Saturday or Sunday.  Enough excuses though.

A couple weeks ago, I had a little talk with myself after looking at the calendar and realizing just how little time I had left to train for the OBX half.  So, I was all motivated and ready to get down to business again.  I had a very difficult 5.5 mile long run on August 1st.  I wasn’t letting that get me down though and was determined to increase my weekly miles.  I got up the following Monday morning, August 3rd to do my usual during the week route which is about 2.75 miles or so.  About a 1/2 mile into the run I started to get a twinge of pain in my right ankle.  I just figured it was my body not being happy about my long run on Saturday.  The pain wasn’t affecting my gait and honestly I have run through worse.  I kept on going.  The pain got a little worse as I got near the middle to end of my run, but it still wasn’t enough to make me think that I should stop.  I made it home and hopped in the shower and got ready for work as usual without thinking about it much anymore.

After my drive to the office I got out of my truck and started to walk towards the building and then, oh my god was I in pain.  I started limping and just couldn’t believe that it just flared up for no apparent reason.  As much as I wanted to ignore it and hope that it just went away, I knew that I couldn’t.  I hadn’t rolled my ankle or had any sort of trauma that would cause this kind of pain.  I decided that I would see how it was the next day and figure out if I was going to make a trip to the doctor.  The next day it was the same.  I gave in and found a foot and ankle doctor to go see that had an appointment open that same day (Tuesday, August 4th).  Looking back now I wish I had gone to my regular Orthopedist, but oh well.  The Podiatrist was okay.  He doesn’t specialize in sports medicine and I should have gone to someone that did.  Anyway, the Doc said that I had either a stress fracture or shin splints.  There was no fracture on the x-ray he took, but that is pretty common if it was a stress fracture.  I don’t think shin splints really fits with the pain and the area of the pain, but whatever.  He told me to get some new shoes and tried to sell me some custom orthotics (the orthotics thing was funny considering he hadn’t even really diagnosed my problem definitively).  I got some new shoes this past weekend and some inserts recommended by the shoe guy.  I have an appointment this afternoon to get my ankle rechecked by the Podiatrist.  We’ll see what he has to say now.

I still have some pain, but I can walk without a limp.  If I exercise at all I usually have some pain and stiffness after sitting for long periods of time or after I wake up in the morning and start walking around.  My guess is I have tweaked a ligament or something.

Even if the Doc tells me that I can start running again I don’t know if I am going to have time to properly train for the OBX half and I am really bummed about that.  I am not counting myself out yet, but realistically it looks like I am going to have to pick a different race.  I am crossing my fingers that the new shoes and the inserts will help once I get back on the road.  I know from experience that the shoes can make a world of difference.

9 miles and a personal best

I have been trying to reach the 9.5 mile goal on my training schedule for a few weeks now.  I attempted it again on the Sunday before last (June 7th).  I got a later start out of the house than I intended to and the temperature was already rising.  It is incredibly difficult to run in the heat and stay motivated.  The first half of the run wasn’t too bad, but once I hit mile 6 it was a struggle.  I was running laps around a little pond not to far from my house.  There is a paved 1/2 mile loop that I run on my long runs.  I had to keep giving myself the I think I can speech in my head.  I was also counting down the laps and telling myself that I could run 1 more lap.  It is similar to what I do when running up a hill and trying to finish out whatever time I had set myself to run (1 min., 2 min., etc).  You can always push yourself by saying you can do anything for a minute.  Anyway, I couldn’t quite push myself to go that last 1/2 mile.  I was hot and tired and really just wanted to go home and lay on the floor.  So, I did.  I finished my 9 mile run in about 2 hours and 5 minutes.

Yesterday, I went for my regular old short run around the office park.  My alarm clock didn’t go off in the morning and I couldn’t get my run in before I came to work.  Not a big deal really since it was raining and I hoped to avoid running in the rain.  It was an overcast day all day and the temperature wasn’t supposed to get much past 70.  Running in the afternoon wasn’t as brutal as it has been.  I am not sure what made everything come together yesterday, but my breathing was spot on and the hills didn’t kill me.  I just ran and ran and took some short walk breaks here and there.  It is amazing how much farther I can go when I don’t have the sun sucking the life out of me.  I was shocked when I entered my run into my training log and found that I ran 3.5 miles in 40 minutes!  An 11 min. mile pace…how crazy is that!

8 miles on Mother’s Day

When I woke up on Sunday morning I was thinking to myself – self, why are you running 8 miles on Mother’s Day?  Most mom’s will be sitting in bed waiting for their husbands/kids to bring them breakfast.  Not me.  No, I was prepping for an 8 mile run and starting to wonder why I thought training for a half-marathon was a good idea.  Guess what my Mother’s Day gift to myself was.  It was a fuel belt.  That in itself is pretty funny.  Because when I started running I would have laughed in your face if you said that in the near future I was going to be running distances that would require a fuel belt.  So, I got dressed and went downstairs and did something I have never done before.  I drank a cup of coffee before my run.  I have never done it before cause I always thought the caffeine would dehydrate me and cause coffee tends to move things along if ya know what I mean (sorry if that is TMI).  I really don’t want to be 4 miles from home and in need of a bathroom.  I drank coffee that morning cause I needed a pick me up and all the studies coming out now say that it actually helps with your workout.  Plus the amount of caffeine in one cup apparently isn’t enough to dehydrate you.  

Now, I don’t know if it was the coffee or just my general state of being that day, but I felt like the first 4 miles of that run were almost effortless.  It was kinda bizarre.  Normally the first 2 miles or so of any run just plain suck for me.  I am trying to get my rhythm, my body is getting warmed up and I just don’t really enjoy it.  Not this past Sunday.  The temperature outside was just right and I was running a new route with some new scenery.  I figured the 8 mile run was going to be hell and it was the exact opposite.  It was quite pleasant.  I even managed to do my 2 min run/1 min walk/2 min run almost the entire time.  There were only a couple of breaks longer than a minute but I usually made up for it with a longer run afterward.  Oh, and by the way my total distance was actually 8.25 miles ;).  I even managed a damn good pace of 13:18 so the whole thing took me 1:50:00.  Maybe I needed a good run that day to remind me why I want to run the OBX half.  

Week after next is a 9.5 mile run.