Went for a run

Sunday I decided to go for a run. It had been a week since I ran. A week that included a lovely stomach/intestinal bug that made me so sick. But, it was now two weeks until Shamrock race weekend and three until The Love Run weekend. The training schedule stated 9-10 miles, but I knew that wasn't happening.

I left the house telling the hubby I didn't know how far I was going or how long, but probably not long. I parked the car and realized I forgot Garmin. Yea... I had my Nano, but I can't get it calibrated so I didn't bother with it other than for music. I did put it on the run setting, but other than that hit go and off I went.

The neighborhood I run in has three streets that are about half a mile long one way. I ran in and just went. No idea how far I was going to go, just see how the body felt. I was going pretty well. I decided to run each street up and back. I figured that would get me about four miles.

When I got that far, I felt pretty well so decided to run two streets more. Why not? I felt good and could stop anytime I wanted. At four miles I ran further than I thought I would. After those two streets, I ran the main street then back to the car.

I had no idea how far I went but I knew I ran for 1:56:45. Way longer than the 20-30 minutes I figured I'd run. The run felt stress-free. No distance requirements. No time requirements. I could stop whenever I wanted. I could run as long as I felt good. It was liberating!

I can home and plugged the run into Map My Run. Why not? Let's see how far 1:56:45 got me. Shockingly, I ran 8.15 miles. Wha????

Here's why I'm shocked by this. Last Saturday I ran 7.5 miles in 2:02:--. Ummm... I ran a half mile faster this week after being sick for a week. I'm under 15 minute miles for the first time in ages on a longer run {I run faster for 1-2 miles, but slow up as I go along.}.

Apparently, the lack of direction for this run worked. I won't PR my races this month. I won't come close, but I feel much closer better about running them. This run did a lot for my mental state than any run I've had to date. I may just enjoy my four races this month.

How has your training gone? Are you prepping for races this spring? Which races are you running?

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8 mile run

Saturday, I ran 8 miles on the York County Rail Trail. It was a rough start. I woke up later than I anticipated and normally that would mean I would put it off. But, I decided to go out anyway. 8 miles needed to be run and it needed to be done on schedule. Why, I don't know and I'll come back to this later.

So, I got myself up and got out of the house. I decided to try my Cytomax Cool Citrus I received in my Zooma training package.

I only had one in my package

I knew it was going to be a hot run (compared to last month's), so I had to have my water with me and since I had samples of items from Zooma and Stride Box, why not try them out? 

I arrived at the Rail Trail in York about 11:00 a.m. This is way later than I wanted to start out, but darn it! I wanted to get my run in! I helped someone whose first time at the trail wasn't sure of the path, then headed out. I have to say, the sections of the trail in York itself are really pretty.

I am not always a fan of the out and back. I like winding routes because it tricks me into thinking I've gone further than I have. LOL! But, the Rail Trail is out and back, so the goal was 4 down, 4 back. I got through the city and finally started hitting the part of the trail that's a bit more in the country...you could say...

That is a rooster and chickens on the rail road tracks. Seriously. The rooster kept crowing as I ran past. And they had no fear of people! I passed within a foot or two of them and they didn't even blink!

There were lots of people on the trail yesterday, but not so many that I felt crowded. That was nice. This may sound silly, but I worry about being along on the trail since it's surrounded by trees. But, yesterday was the perfect mix of people without being too crowded.

I hit the turnaround point at 52:09. A little slower than I would have liked, but I felt good. But, the return trip wasn't as strong. My quads were hurting the whole time. I honestly wanted to stop. I had no desire to keep going. I wanted to get to my car at mile 6 and just stop. Of course, with an out and back, you can't do that. So, I knew I had to keep going. Sadly, I slowed down. 

My Garmin had goal times for 8 miles that would give me a PR at Zooma. I kept looking at it, hoping to be within the range. I have two goals, a sub-2:50:00 and one that just squeaks me by at 2:51:14. Sadly, I missed both of those by about 4 minutes. I could say that I had to stop several times on the run for traffic and that if I hadn't I would have made it, but eh. I have no idea how long I stopped at each street so I can't honestly justify that. Sure, I know I lost some time, but I'm not going to say it all got eaten up by traffic. 

I got back to my car and hubby and I met at our normal post-run spot, Dunkin Donuts. I had a yummy blueberry iced coffee and 

I made a resolution at the beginning of the year that I can only have apple fritters on runs longer than 6 miles. LOL! The other donut is a toasted coconut, which my DD rarely has. Yum!

I mentioned earlier that I would come back to that Saturday run thing. I realized something on my run yesterday that if I want to succeed in a PR on June 1 I need to do. I have to adjust my running schedule. We are entering the busy season at work now and with that means I am on my feet all day. Friday, I was exhausted when I came home. My legs were pained and I could barely walk back to my car (I park half a mile away from my office every day). The last couple of weeks have been like this. Last Saturday during my 5 mile run my legs were tired the whole run and my time was awful. I was surprised yesterday at how well then held up the first half of my run. Then on the second half, my quads hurt the entire way. Hence why I wanted to quit. 

So, this means my long runs need to change. I have to move them to Sunday, which I do not want to do. I like running my long runs on Saturday morning. I like in a sense getting them over with for the weekend and knowing I can enjoy my Saturday and Sunday without worrying about feeling well for my run. But, my legs are too tired on Saturday after working three days on my feet. I think they need to rest for a day, even if I go to the gym and use the bike or something. I only have three more weekend runs before Zooma, it won't be too bad. Really. It won't be. 

The other thing about the run is I used Ctyomax for the first time. The Zooma course has 9 water stations in 13.1 miles (which is awesome!), so I decided to take water on my run every two miles. I have to say, I was impressed with the Cytomax. It had a nice taste - not too sweet, not syrupy, no aftertaste. The Cool Citrus flavor was refreshing, especially at the two mile mark when I still had ice in my water bottle. I think that would be the only thing I would say about it is that it tastes best when cold. But, that's not anything more than many a drink. I know I will be taking some of the Cytomax during the course to help. It's the first sports drink I've had on a run that I've liked. Hopefully it will be cold on the course!

Do you do your long runs on Saturday or Sunday? Have you tried Cytomax?

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8 mile

Well...as you can tell I haven't been all that up on the whole exercise thing.  I've been slacking.  Really slacking.  I ran 4 miles on Monday, August 13th at the Y before fencing.  And then... nothing.  I haven't done anything since.  We hit Las Vegas for 5 days, then came home exhausted.  My left leg also hurt when we came home, so I said I would give myself til this past Saturday to get my leg back to normal.

And then I slept late on Saturday morning.  By the time I got up, it was too late to get in an 8 mile run.  No biggie.  I can run it on Sunday.  And then I didn't.  Slept too late.  I was wondering what was up with my motivation.  I've been having this issue for weeks.

Today, I woke up at 9:20 a.m.  Not the best time wise for a run, but I kinda had to get it in.  I spent about an hour getting ready and finally hit the pavement about 11:00 a.m.  At 75 degrees.  It was not a fun run.  I did pretty well until about mile 6.  I did have all sorts of weird pains in the left leg throughout the run - some stiffness in my calf, a bit in the Achilles, and at mile 4.5 hip pain.  Yea, I'm not surprised.  All pain that I've had in the past because I haven't been exercising. 

The worst part of the run was the last mile.  I realized I would have been ok had the last mile would have been flat.  Sadly, it's not.  It's very hilly.  Very, very hilly.  I ended up walking way more than I would have liked.  I was disappointed, but I got in the 8 miles I was scheduled for this past weekend.

The positive is I got my 8 mile run in.  I feel a bit better about the half marathon on Oct. 21st.  I would not meet my goal time as of now, but I would cross the finish line.  I have about 2 months to go, so as long as I get on track, I should be ok.

Tonight?  Signed up for another set of 10 30 minute training sessions.  Tonight is the first of these 10.  I have a feeling I am going to hurt tomorrow.

Here we go again

 Remember a few weeks ago when I had that weird ankle injury?  Well, thankfully it went away by my next run.  Phew!  I'm really not able to handle a serious injury right now, not as I'm getting closer to the Philly Half Marathon (10 weeks!).

Yea, wouldn't life be nice if injuries didn't occur while training?  I woke up Saturday morning with the backs of both of my thighs sore, which would be the hamstrings (see above).  They just did not feel good.  It seemed odd that it was both, but at least there's consistency.  I headed out for my run anyway.  I parked the car, stretched, and started running.  It was not pleasant.  I had an 8 mile run scheduled and did my legs hurt. Just hurt.  It sucked.  All I could think about was how painful the next 2 hours were going to be.  And let me tell you, they were.

The bigger issue?  By the time I hit mile 3.5, my left hip started hurting.  Apparently, in order to keep my thighs from hurting, some part of my brain/body decided to compensate for the pain.  I don't know what it did, but whatever it was involved my left hip.  And it hurt.  I stopped and tried to stretch it out.  I thought maybe if I stop and stretch with the muscles warmed up it might work out the kinks.  It worked...sorta.  For the next mile or so it wasn't too bad.  The thighs weren't thrilled with me, but the hip stopped hurting.  I thought I might make it through.

I was wrong.  By the time I got to mile 5, the hip pain was back.  It really did not like me.  I stopped again to stretch.  This time it really didn't help.  I (sadly) thought, it's only 3 more miles, I could gut them out.  I hit 5.5 miles and realized that was a really dumb idea.  See, I have a history of quitting when the going gets tough and to me, this was tough.  I didn't want to be a quitter.  But, I thought about it and realized, this may not just be me quitting.  This is me injured, in pain.  Do what's best for your body.  So, at 5.65 miles I decided to quit. 

Of course, I was far from my car at that point.  I would have to walk back.  And I did.  With a little running mixed in.  I know. I know. Why?  Because while I knew my run ended up having WAY more walking in it than I wanted, I didn't want the last mile to be all walking.  So, I would run until my hip hurt and then stop.  I did two stints of running mixed with walking.  And in the end, I run/walk 6.5 miles. 

And today?  The hamstrings still hurt.  The left hip still hurts.  It's not pleasant.  I'm not happy about it.  It hurts to walk.  And right now, as I sit here typing, I can feel a slight pain in the hamstrings.  Walking isn't fun.  Hoping that it's nothing serious.  The positive is this week's long run is 4 miles.  I debated trying to make up the 8 miles, but decided against it.  I'm going to stick with the plan and go for 4 miles this coming Saturday...if the hamstrings are up to it.

8 Mile

Doesn't it remind you of the Eminem movie?  It does me.  Every time I see it, I think of Eminem. 

In reality, 8 miles has nothing to do with Eminem or the movie.  It has all to do with the run I had this afternoon.  I went out in a fairly nice day and ran 8 miles.  Which seems crazy to me.  I ran 6 miles last Sunday, which was the first time since October 16th (and the Baltimore Marathon Relay).  Then the lovely pulled hamstring happened and I had to start over again.  And I have finally gotten myself up to the longer distances...even if they are slow.

But today was a milestone, I hit EIGHT miles.  I had never done that before.  On the 16th of October (Baltimore Marathon Relay), I ran 7 miles.  It was crazy honestly.  I hadn't run all week and I was kinda nervous it wouldn't happen.  But, I went out anyway and chose to try.  You never know until you try, right?

It was a good run overall.  I had no worries for about the first 5 miles.  And even then, I knew the 8 would probably happen (I was about 98% sure).  The issue I had at 5 miles was how to finish the last three miles?  There's this one big hill that I just really didn't want to run up, so I tried to figure out how to avoid it.  Sadly, in my complete lack of foresight, I ran multiple OTHER hills to avoid the ONE hill I initially didn't want to run.  I did end up walking one block because the that hill was just killing me.  I really did not feel up to running that one.  I walked one block and then ran the last mile.

So, I ran 8 miles today in 1 hour 57 minutes and 56 miliseconds.  Which gave me a 14:44 mile.  Not what I'm hoping for come Feb. 27th, but I did do all 8 miles under 2 miles, which was today's goal.  I feel good about the race and feel it's possible now. 

And on my way home, I rewarded myself with an iced blueberry coffee.  Yum!