(Monday, 23 July)
Went out to chill, get the legs going after this weekend. Ended up running longer (timewise) than I expected but shorter (mileagewise) than I expected after consulting gmap-pedometer. Boo. But there were some real good hills, so I get some suffering points there. Plan is to run to work Tuesday/Thursday for miles, and some speed Wednesday, and easy Friday going into my tempo Saturday.
I need to keep icing the foot, and get back on track with the PT. My shoulder has been bothering me again. I also feel like a complete Fred and a loser when there's people out there that do things like this.
(Tuesday, 24 July)
Ran to work, which I've decided is much more favorable than running home. The hill is no big deal compared to on the bike (only took me 7.50 to get up, versus 6.10 on the bike). The only thing that would be nice would be to do it all on the beach, but that'll have to wait until a day when the tide is low at the right time. I would like to run from SB all the way to Black's and then up to work some day. That would be about 11.5 - 12 I think.
My legs felt fine as normal, esp. since I was running very easy. About 9.25 average pace (close to 10 on the hills and sand, 8.30-45 otherwise I'd guess). I was feeling a little giddyup when I first left the house but that dissipated once I started to work through my breakfast of banana and peanut butter. Some side-stitch issues around TP but I think I just was forgetting to breathe. Also, ate a gu at the bottom of TP which made me feel pretty good.
Also I was unclear about the train tracks portion. I kept running by signs that said "Railroad personnel only", and "Beware of cliff failure" and "No Trespassing on Railroad property", &c. But, the gate going in from Del Mar was open and the path going out from TP had other people on it; there was just a section in the middle where I was running... very fast. Didn't help that it was all gravely and shit. I would have enjoyed it a bit more if it wasn't so sketch; it wasn't foggy this morning and I could see all the surfers from my perch on the bluff.
(Wednesday, 25 July)
Tempo run. Wanted to see the course for Saturday; I think it's going to be really pretty with no cars or bikes out! I thought it would be boring but esp. the 10k loop down to Cardiff will be awesome. Course map. I could do with more than one tiny hill though. Warm-up mile on Seabright, ran to start, did the .85 to VdlV at 6.15 = 7.20 pace, eased up a bit and got back to LSF at 12.30 (7.26 pace) took it easy 3 min, then hard 1.1 down to turn around in 8.15, quick stretch, back in 8 up the hill. (about 7.20 pace) So, legs strong I guess. Waddled in for a total of 63 minutes and 7.5, a little less than I wanted to do today. I guess I'll make it up tomorrow.
Ankle feels fine while running but continues to be tender, especially to the touch. Certain motions still bother it, and it's definitely still a bit swollen. Last night I was having some dream where I had my foot pointed and then I turned it to the inside to roll over and it hurt so I woke up. Then, in the shower this AM I was holding the foot to the inside to wash my feet and it got in some position where it hurt so much I actually gasped, like in movies. Grumble. I'm reinstating the aggressive icing plan and elevation.
How long are these types of things supposed to hang on for? It's been 1 week and 4 days now. I guess that doesn't sound like that long.
(Thursday, 26 July)
The joy of running! Ran to work today, felt pretty good considering. I had a bad night -- woke up after first sleep cycle in the middle of one of the worst nightmares in recent memory. WTF? This has happened several times in the last few weeks. It took me a while to get back to sleep. Then, I woke up at 5.30 (45 minutes before my alarm) to a terrible sore throat -- my usual precursor to getting sick. I considered trashing the run for the day, but decided to go anyways. If I'm going to get sick, I'm going to get sick and I should keep doing my miles while I feel fine, right? I also took a ton of vitamin C and am going to drink a shitton of fluids today.
I went around the RR part of the route today, which was okay. My legs felt decent considering yesterday, and felt better as the miles went by. I got particularly frisky at around 30 and 60 minutes. The gu tasted good too. Ran with my phone as Gina suggested, which didn't bother me as much as I expected. B-fast was a slice of toast with PB, a plum, and water. Felt better than the banana yesterday, but possibly because I didn't really eat dinner last night so my belly was empty.
Finished off the run with a half on the track/grass, got hit on by some old guy (again). Iced and had the best hot chocolate ever (my makeshift recovery drink -- I foam milk in the espresso maker downstairs and add hot chocolate). Also I'm being good again, I elevated my foot last night and did PT before I headed out this AM.
(Friday, 27 July)
Hum. The legs are feeling pretty g-damn dead today. Sore, cramped, and dead. I also feel kinda blah in general. Was it the late night? The inability to sleep past 6.30? The miles of the last week? It's weird this creeped up but, here it is. I'll take it as easy as possible today.
Since I couldn't sleep in I went out for a shuffle around 7.30 and kicked around for 50 minutes before calling it quits. Rough. Took some ibuprofen, so hopefully my legs will feel okay by this afternoon. Maybe I can figure out a way to sneak a nap in? Maybe I should go home early if I get my shat done, and just lie on the couch or make a cold bathtub.
Nevertheless looking forward to the weekend... after around 8.30 tomorrow morning it's going to be nothing but lying on the beach and creampuffs. Or, a bigass bike ride. We'll see.
(Saturday, 28 July)
Irongirl 10k in Solana Beach.
46.26, man I need a day off. The tempo was fine, but after my legs were sore just running down the hill on my cool down. 7.28, 7.24, 7.14, 7.46, 7.37, 7.28, 1.29. Chip time apparently didn't work, fuckers. Pleased with consistency, especially since the other folks were so erratic. The first 400m or so I was almost walking trying to get around all the slow folks in front of me on the start. I thought I had put myself far enough up on the line, but I was wrong. I worked my way up the crowd and stopped where I started to see sporty, really fit (aka sinewy, muscley, or really thin) folks that looked like they could run faster than me. WRONG. What a disaster. I actually was passing people, LOTS of people, until about mile 4.
Some observations:
1) on the start line, the woman in front of me (uberthin) was wearing Newtons. Thank you Kangway for teaching me about these just in time for me to appreciate them.
2) Way more people did the 10k than the 5k, as opposed to Pasadena or Piedmont where I would have expected more folks to do the 5k. Just another example of how fit people are here.
3) I never want to do another "all women" event. None of that cutey rah-rah shit would ever fly at a co-ed event. I find it demeaning as an athlete and totally unnecessary. I'm standing on the fucking line, people. I don't need to be pumped up or convinced to do this, because I am already here. I'd say at least 85% of the people there appeared to agree with me.
4) The woman who sang the national anthem skipped a verse. Classic.
5) My eardrums nearly ruptured from the huge, overpowered speaker blasting in my ear. At least 50 people in my immediate vicinity were holding their ears.
On the other hand, I hear they had a baby race afterwards. As in, they literally took all those babies that had been in the strollers during the race and put them out and raced them against each other. That actually sounded kind of fun to watch.
(Sunday, 29 July)
Beach, chillin. The right foot is a little weird today, the normal tightness on the bottom, but also a patch on the middle of the foot, on the outside, but on the bottom of the foot is kind of weird feeling. I think I'm still landing funny on that foot from the ankle-rolling incident. Watch it.
------------------------
total miles: 50
(goal miles: 50)
I can't believe I remembered to stop my watch. Should've run faster.
Jul 23, 2007
Week 10: levelling out
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8 comments:
hahah, oh man yeah Ian "i'm gonna go and ride for 140 miles right after i've been injured for weeks, lah dee dah" Shapiro makes me feel like a loser too...
but if it makes you feel any better, Katherine "i'm so badass i bike 90 extra minutes a day uphill on top of training seriously for XC in the fall" Breeden also inspires similar feelings :).
Do you have to be a girl to run the Irongirl?
I'm not sure! This actually really puzzles me; when there's "women's" events, does that mean "no boys allowed" or is it okay, there just won't be that many of them? I don't really get the concept of the women's races to be perfectly honest. Maybe it is to encourage women who aren't super fast to do stuff like this anyways without worrying it's going to be a big deal?
I think maybe it means no guys allowed, and any guys who run it might just feel really isolated? I guess if they think no other guys are running it, that might be enough of a deterrent.
I think the point of contrast hydrotherapy is to increase the total amount of circulation in the thing without making it swell up too much.
I guess I would have expected the swelling in your ankle to be down by now, but maybe not. Once the swelling is gone though, you definitely should start adding in those strengthening exercises. I get the feeling that if you dont strengthen, regular running will continually add small amounts of trama to the ankle, since the muscles aren't strong enough to support it.
One XC season long ago I rolled my ankle in a meet and it bugged me a lot for 6 weeks. So much that six weeks later, I ran 3 miles around a track and the muscle went dead and I basically couldn't dorsiflex my foot. Looking back, the problem could have been solved by simple strengthening.
Anyhow, what are your goals for this Irongirl? Is it going to be more of a tempo thing? Feeling out the first few miles and then pushing hard at the end if you feel good? Or how's it gonna roll?
I'm not sure how the Irongirl is going to go. I think I'm just going to feel it out, especially since I woke up today not feeling so great. My run felt fine though, so maybe I just have to take it easy.
I think the plan will be to keep it outside my comfort zone and try and keep a nice, steady pace. I would be very happy with a time that reflected 7.20 - 7.45 effort, since most of my mileage has been long and slow. But, if it ends up slower I'm not going to sweat it. It's not a race, it's more of a benchmark.
They say that as long as your symptoms are neck and above, like a light, throaty cough, runny nose, sore throat, then it's okay to run. If you get body aches, or maybe a headache, or a deep chesty cough, don't run. Either way, if the symptoms persist, run lightly and easy. And maybe ease back on the mileage a bit. If you don't want to do that, one thing you could do is probably just to cut out all of the biking and just start taking a bus.
Also there was some study done about how chocolate milk is as good as Endurox R4 at helping recovery. So yes, excellent call.
Well done. 47:22. That fits nicely into your 7:20-7:45 pace, no?
Actually, I ran a 46.26, so the whole "chip time" thing must not have been working out so hot. I wrote my splits down at home, but it was something like: 7.28 (with a 400 period in the front where I was almost walking trying to get around folks), 7.24, 7.14 (downhill), 7.46 (uphill), 7.37 (I swallowed a whole bunch of air trying to take a gulp of water, big mistake), 7.28, 1.29.
I think that still puts me at 5th in my age division, and only moves me up a few spots overall, so it doesn't change much. Unless none of their chips worked either.
I felt pretty good, keeping it easy, and it was a very good tempo run (pretty consistent considering). But because of my poor starting-line position I was moving up weaving around folks until about mile 4, which isn't ideal.
But seriously, what did I pay $35 bucks for if the damn chips don't even work?
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