Day Off

I took the day off from running today. We went out for drinks with friends instead. Tomorrow is my sports massage. I've been doing some reading on the topic and it looks like it's not advised to run after a massage. I'll see what the massage therapist says.

My hip is feeling so much better. The heating pad treatment really helped. I wish I would have thought of it two weeks ago.

The weather's not looking good for a long run on Saturday so I may postpone it until Sunday. I can't decide what mileage I should for - 8,9,10 or 11. Guess I have a few days to decide.

Finally, a good run

I had a good run tonight. I tried a few things with my hip and they worked out well.

First, I used a heating pad on low heat on it for 15 minutes before I left in order to get the hip muscles loosened up. Then, I started out running slowly, letting my body warm up. Next, I ran with traffic so that my left leg wasn't always on the down side of the road. It worked. I felt a few twinges here and there that I would lump in the same category as the rest of the twinges I feel during any run, but overall it was a good run.

For the benefit of...

...the people who don't know the lingo (that'd be you Mom):

Running capris: They're for no-longer-winter-but-not-yet-spring weather. They bridge the gap between wearing tights, which go down to the ankle, and shorts.

I picked up these in San Francisco's Nike Town store: Nike Acceleration Running Capri


New running shorts also from Nike Town: Nike Tempo Track short


New insoles shorts from the New Balance store: New Balance Pressure Relief Insoles

I'm back!

After a 11-days off from running, I did a swift three-miler after work today. I'm happy to report that I didn't seem to lose any of my stamina during my running vacation. My bet is that it's partially due to my harder than usual cardio sessions in the fitness center of the hotel. Getting the old heart rate up to 170-180 bpm for 30+ minutes four days/week was the way to go. I also hit the weights pretty hard as well. I'd say my hip is about 50% better than the last time I ran. I'm not sure what to make of that. It feels like the muscles surrounding my hip are really tight and they're constantly being pulled. I'm going to try to get into the massage therapist in my gym and see if she can work things out for me because no amount of stretching that I do on my own helps.

I am worried about my endurance, though. My longest run to-date has been 9 miles, and while that was a piece of cake, between my hip and the rotten weather, I haven't been keeping up with increasing mileage on those long runs. Unfortunately, my schedule is now in taper mode and there really isn't any room for a long run. I might attempt a 7 or 8 miler on Saturday, just to feel things out. The key to taper mode is to run, but run slow short distances in an attempt to avoid all injury prior to the race so I am a bit reluctant to attempt any longer distances.

I bought some fancy new insoles from the New Balance store in San Francisco. These insoles fit my shoes perfectly (no trimming involved) and my feet were really happy (and blister free) during my run. I also paid a very expensive visit to Nike Town, which was a block from my hotel. I dropped around $85 on shorts and running capris (ran in them tonight, loved them!) that I've had my eye on for a couple of months now.

I took some pictures while I was in San Francisco, but they're on my work computer so I'll have to upload them (hopefully) tomorrow.

Hips are Stupid

Despite my hip, I ran today. Also, despite my reasonably average pace of 11:15/mile, it was not a very good run. My hip was really bothering me and I decided to throw in the towel at mile 4 because I couldn't deal with it anymore. I wore my old shoes and my blisters seemed to be happier with that. Unfortunately, the bike trail was swamped and there was no way to avoid the water. My feet ended up soaked and that irritated my blisters. Also, hearing my shoes squish for the entire run was annoying.

The latest photo of my left-foot blister, in all it's glory. The left one looks about half as bad.



There's three weeks until the half marathon and I'm not feeling very confident at this point. Not sure what to do at this point.

Stretching with Simon


Spencer in his box

Tired

The four days of rest did my body good. My run tonight was decent. Not great, and not as bad as last week. It took my legs around 3 miles to settle into running and I got another blister on my left foot, which is on top of the blister I got last week. It doesn't hurt too badly, but it's going to need some serious taping on my next run. I think I'm going to switch back to my old shoes and what happens on Wednesday. Oh, and now my left hip is mysteriously bothering me. Cripes, I feel like I'm falling apart.

Running five miles at an average pace of 10:40 is really hard. Actually, I'm finding that it's not that hard while I'm doing it, but when it's over I am completely exhausted. It's going to be an early night tonight.

That's more like it

I ran today. I wasn't going to run today, but when I got home I decided that I wanted to give it a try, mostly because the alternative was to sit around and mope about not running.

I originally only planned on going two miles total, but when I got to two, I decided to stretch it to three, then four and then finally ended up doing the entire five. I had to do the last mile running up and down M-26 because I was out of route options. That hill is killer, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

My blisters are pretty much healed and I'm down to one bandage per foot now rather than the elaborate bandage and taping mess I had last week. However, my feet are taking a serious beating.

Behold the hideousness that is my feet:


After every run, I like to get in at least 15 minutes of stretching and rollering. I do this in the middle of my living room floor and my kitty Simon is always thrilled to have me down on his level. He comes over, purring like crazy, and bonks me with his head, which is his way of saying he wants to be petted. After a bit, he lays down on the carpet and stretches with me. This happens every single time I stretch. Josh once complained that I don't have enough pictures on this weblog so here's some of Simon and I stretching tonight.

Still hate running

I did 45 minutes of weight training tonight in an effort to get rid of the bad attitude I've had since the Run From Hell yesterday.

Didn't work.

Still pissed off.

Grr.

Sometimes I really hate running

And today was one of those days. Everything went wrong and my run was awful. Every step hurt, physically and mentally. I should have just taken the day off.

Nine Miles of Hills

There is a 2.5 mile hill on Paradise Road. It consists of long uphills which crest to short less-steep sections which lead to other uphills. I think this repeats about four or five times. I thought it would never end. I was so happy to finally come to the top of that endless hill at mile 7.5 and then realize that the rest of my run was downhill.

The weather was wonderful. No wind and lots of sun. I actually had to remove one of my layers because I was too hot. Lots of traffic, though. That was annoying.

My blisters returned despite my best taping/bandaging efforts. They didn't bother me too much during the run - just enough to remind me that they were there. I have no idea if it's from my shoes or socks or maybe I just have tender feet. In any event, I need to do some blister prevention research before my next run.

This week's totals:
18.04 miles @ 3:18:01
Average pace 10:59 (Woo!!!) (5.5 mph)

A New PR!

My hamstring has still been bothering me, so tonight I decided that I was going to try and avoid hills completely. I also decided that since I was running mostly without hills, I would try to run 10-11 minute miles for the entire distance. I did it! My average pace for the 4.5 miles was 10:31 minute/mile. Rock!

On the down-side, I got blisters the size of dimes on the balls of both my feet. Time to invest in some medical tape. Hopefully they'll simmer down by Saturday, when I have my 9-miler scheduled. 9-miles. Geez, that's a long way. I usually try not to dwell on the distance and just tell myself that it's just another run and it's not that big of a deal. My plan is to run the back roads to the Citgo in Chassell and have Josh pick me up. All my long runs so far have ended up at one gas station or another. Gotta keep up the trend.