Saturday Long Run...Finally!

There are 20 days until The Love Run Half Marathon. I have run a grand total of 5 miles for my longest run to date for it. It's been exceedingly frustrating. Every time I went out for a long run, my ankle/calf where I slammed 37.5 pounds on it last month hurt. I didn't know what I did and was afraid I did something to the Achilles. I did not want a ruptured Achilles.

Today, I went out for 7.5 miles. I needed a good long run before the 30th to feel confident I won't be swept off the course. I also needed to know I could run that distance without my ankle/calf hurting.

I went with my intervals of half mile run/1 minute walk. Some weeks I've done 4 minute run/1 minute walk, but I went longer today. I got to half a mile, felt good. I got to one mile, felt good. I got to 1.5 miles, felt good. From here on out is when I have to start worrying. It always kicked in after 1.5 miles, closer to 2. I got to two miles, felt good. 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4 miles. All pain-free! Woohoo!

I was so happy that I could run that far without any pain. I ran around town until 7 miles, half a mile shorter than I scheduled, but my hips were starting to bother me. I decided to cut it short to rest the hips. The last time I ran 7+ miles was Nov. 11th when I ran the National Veterans Day 11k Run. I'm ok with cutting this one a tiny bit short.

As a funny aside to today's run, it was the very first time on a training run of any length that I had to stop for a bathroom break. I've been running for 5+ years and this is the first time I had to seek out a bathroom so I could continue running. Thank you Sheetz for having a clean bathroom I could use!

How did your long run go today? Anyone else have warmer temperatures?


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Sunday's long run...sorta

For some reason I've been digging my Sunday run rather than my Saturday run this time around. Last week hubby and I went out on Sunday for our runs and I felt pretty good about it. This week, my hip killed me Thursday and Friday, so when I woke up pain-free Saturday, I decided to let rest it one more day.

Got up today to run. Hip hurt. Ugh. What the heck?? I didn't let it stop me. I did my stretches and added in some new ones. Nothing more that I can do but stretch and hope for the best.

I went out to the same area I ran last Sunday for 4 miles. As soon as I started running I had pain. Pain in the outside of my left calf/ankle. WTF??? I had one tiny little twinge in my hip, but it lasted seconds and then nothing. Instead, ankle/calf pain for 25 minutes.

I lasted 25 minutes (Garmin was dead [though I didn't know that until I got there. Ugh] so I used my Nano run app for time). Yes, 25 minutes out of 60. So disappointing. But, I decided to call it a day because I have never had pain in that area and it didn't go away. I'm still in the early going for The Love Run training and I don't want to make something worse.

Came home and iced the area. I'm hoping it helps and that I can try again tomorrow.

Higgy the cat helping ice my calf/ankle.

What do you do if something starts to hurt during a run? Do you gut it out or call it a day? Does how close to your goal race is make a difference in your approach?

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Let's talk yoga

Late last year I won a free six month membership to Run Smart online. I was so excited! Then I promptly didn't use it. Ugh.

At the end of December/early January I started working on my The Love Run training plan. I knew I needed to get those runs in, but I also knew I needed to cross-train. So, I added in some TRX, spin, and PiYo Strength classes at the Y to help, along with my running three times a week. I also knew I needed to work on core and flexibility since that was what kept me from running Philly last November. I started looking at the strength routines on Run Smart and saw their twice a week for six weeks yoga class and decided to add that in.

Normally Saturdays are my long runs and today was my first long run of half marathon training. But, I was so tired from work and getting back into working out that I slept 12 hours and didn't get up for my run. Oops. So, I decided to switch that run to tomorrow and do tomorrow's yoga today.

Glad I did! I did a 48 minute yoga routine and my whole body feels wobbly, but less tense. I did Day 1 on Thursday night and Friday I felt much more loose than I had. After today's 45ish minutes, I feel much looser than I did before I did the yoga and I'm hoping it will make tomorrow's run feel better too.

I'm excited for the yoga I've added into routine. I really like the classes being on-line so I can do it at home and fall over without a bunch of people seeing me. ;-) Plus, I can do it on my own time. This six week class will lead me very nicely up to The Love Run, which hopefully means come race day my hips and back are stretched and ready to go!

Do you do yoga? What do you think about yoga as cross training for running?


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Last "long" run

Last "long" run  before the Yuengling Shamrock Half Marathon next Sunday.  It was scheduled to be 5 miles.  Sadly, it was shortened. 

The first issue I encountered and was going to ignore was my head.  Hmmm...that sounds odd... I woke up with a headache, which isn't unusual for me.  I had a slice of bread with peanut butter and assumed it would take care of it.  By the time I left the house the head didn't hurt as much.  I assumed it was cured.

Wrong.  I started running and as my feet hit the ground my head pounded.  Not horribly.  But enough for it to be a bother.  I was not a happy camper.  But I kept going, especially when I head Garmin go off at the first half mile time and saw I ran under 6 minutes.  That rarely happens. 

The second reason (and more important reason) that I bailed early on this run didn't happen until a mile into it.  Let's back up.  Yesterday at work I was placing a 40 pound box on a shelf that is over my head.  In order to do this, I have to stand on my tip toes to get it high enough to slide in.  Well, I did what I always do and got up on my tip toes to shove the box onto the shelf when my right ankle twisted sideways on me.  It hurt.  I will say I am proud of the fact that I didn't drop the box on my other foot.  I got my balance back and got the box on the shelf.  After a few minutes the pain in my right ankle went away and I didn't think anything of it.

Well, it came back this morning.  But not until I started downhill.  Odd... I made it up one of the killer hills on my route, handled the straightaway fine.  But, when I came back around to go back down the hill the ankle hurt.  And every downhill after that it hurt.  Ugh. 

I had decided before the run that anywhere between 3 and 5 miles would be ok today.  I relaxed the mileage because we're running one of my favorite races of the year tomorrow - Kelly St. Patrick's Day 5k.  :-)  Well, since my ankle and head hurt, I gave in and at 3 miles, stopped.  I must say, it was a good run though.  Three miles in 38:27.  That's speed demon for me.  Crazy how I can run faster when I'm in pain than when I'm not....

Last long run

Yup.  Today I had my last long run before the Philly Half NEXT SUNDAY!!!! Crazy!  It seems like yesterday I started training (end of July really). 

Today's taper run had me going 5 miles. I really wasn't feeling a run this morning, but as I knew I should I went.  And it turned out to be a great one!  Half mile had me at 6:12, which is really good for me.  I then set a goal of hitting a mile in the 12 minute range.  When Garmie went off, I was at 12:48.  Woohoo!  Next goal was 1.5 miles under 20 minutes.  19:38.  Nailed it!  So of course I set the next goal of being in the 26 minute range for 2 miles.  That's been my good time for 2 miles.  26:39 - hells yea!  I reached 2.5 miles around 33 minutes and had high hopes of hitting 3 miles under 40 minutes, but that half mile was all uphill and I didn't make it (41:08 :-( ).  I was slowing down.  Bah!  But, I kept at it and reached 4 miles in about 56 minutes, which while not my fastest, it wasn't too far off.  Then I started thinking I could hit 5 miles under 1:10:00.  Sadly, when I reached 4.5 miles, I realized if I did the math, I would come in at 1:11:something.  This made me sad, but I kept going.  When Garmie went off at 5 miles and I looked down imagine my surprise at

1:09:49

Woohoo!  I was almost jumping up and down on the sidewalk!  Wouldn't that have been funny?  Especially since I was on the busy road near the high school.  And oddly enough, there were TONS of cars on the road today.  Weird.

Overall a great final long run before Philly.  Afterwards, we hit Dunkin Donuts (as is our tradition).  After last week's awful stomach issues, I started out with a egg, cheese, and turkey flatbread, a gingerbread iced coffee and then an apple cinnamon donut.  I am happy to report that my stomach is fine.  Phew!  My friend (who is all-knowledgable about running) analyzed what I ate last week and said I had too much sugar.  So, I tried hard to cut back on the amount of sugar around today's run - no dessert last night, no pre-race meal, and only one 3-piece serving of Sports Beans before the 5 miles.  I had protein with the eggs, cheese, and turkey sausage before having the donut and I'm happy with the results.  I am going to concentrate on more protein in the mornings this week overall.  

One week tomorrow is the Philly Half Marathon.  Eeeeee!!!!!