Lately I've been having some sore leg muscles. Especially my muscle that runs next to my shin. Every run I have I have to warmup, stop and stretch and then finish my run because they are just tight. I definitey don't want to get shin splints, so I'm trying very hard to take care of my legs. Yesterday I was headed out for my 16 mile run. That was a hurdle to overcome mentally. Somehow, everytime I looked at my schedule and saw that 16 mile run looming over me I would have to force myself to focus on the run of the day and just leave it looming. But today was the day that I stepped out and headed off for this seemingly overwhelming run. I took my phone with me in case I needed to call Mark in the middle to come get me!
Anyway, I decided to put some BioFreeze on my legs to help loosen them up. It was empty! I have no idea why I have kept this empty bottle, but no matter how hard I squeezed and shook, nothing was coming out. Feeling desperate, I searched the medicine cabinet for something that would work. I came across some Ultra Arthritic Cream that Mark uses when his back flares up. Perfect! I put it on and wondered if it could possibly be too old to work because I felt nothing. About a mile into my run my muscles were starting to create some heat and I started to feel like my legs were sunburned. Oooh! I forced my mind onto other things and kept running.
Once home, amazingly I didn't need to call Mark to come get me, I decided to hop into the bath to soak my muscles. Suddenly my legs felt like they were on fire!! I kept thinking it'll pass, but instead it felt worse and worse! I had to hop out of the tub and into the shower. Even that was unbearable. I leaned my head into the water and washed my sweaty hair and jumped out. My legs burned for the next 30 minutes! Ridiculous.
Later, when I told Mark about my legs he said that a trainer in college had wrapped his legs up with this cream on them and he'd ended up with blisters. I checked the label on the cream and nowhere in the warnings did it say possible death from burning flesh melting off. What is wrong with these people? And where is some BioFreeze and how soon can I buy some? Well, at least it took my mind off of 16 miles which turned out to be an incredibly exhilerating run! Maybe I should put some on my backside next time and it'll propel me forward! I'll get my fastest time yet. :)
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
14 and ice???
I've recently realized how lucky I am to live in Texas. I haven't always felt that way, after all, I did grow up in Monterey, California. Easily one of the most beautiful places on the planet to live. I thought that was very lucky! I have also been fortunate enough to live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, the Colorado Rockies and even Austin, where they have a lake (river) and hills (which they call mountains, but the rest of the world knows those are just hills). So, Dallas, Texas, in all it's non-glory, flat, very few trees and of what it did have were weird, dead trees growing out of its lakes, didn't seem all that special. Until I began to run.
My running team, poor things, live in Iowa and Indiana where it snows! As they've shared their times and runs with me they've mentioned words like wind, ice and below freezing temperatures. Oooohh, these people are serious runners! I've tried not to be too glib as I shared my times and used words like sun, shorts, and 50 degree weather; just a little "Oh, by the way, it's beautiful weather here," was slyly mentioned... Ok, maybe I did want them to be a little jealous. After all, they've all run marathons and run very fast. I had to have something.... :) But there was this tiny voice that said I didn't need to be as tough as them to gut it out and run in the cold.
Until yesterday! Yes, Texas had snow, and ice, and it was very cold! At first I had a weenie attitude, but at some point I realized, this is my chance! I can be a serious runner too! I put on my neck gaiter/hat, gloves, under armor, sweats, long sleeved shirt, light jacket and heavy jacket and went running. I looked like I was going to rob the 7-11. The only part of my skin that showed was the opening in my hat where my eyes were and I had covered that with sunglasses in case of snow blindness. (Well, I did live in the Rockies and that was a problem there anyway) People looked out their cars at me impressed. I assumed that's what that look on their face was, what else could it have been? (Don't answer that) Okay, there really wasn't a lot of snow or ice on the sidewalks, but I carefully ran the 7 miles to Plano and 7 miles back. I bet there aren't a lot of people that live in Texas that can say they ran 14 miles in the snow. I am a beast, running in the snow!
My running team, poor things, live in Iowa and Indiana where it snows! As they've shared their times and runs with me they've mentioned words like wind, ice and below freezing temperatures. Oooohh, these people are serious runners! I've tried not to be too glib as I shared my times and used words like sun, shorts, and 50 degree weather; just a little "Oh, by the way, it's beautiful weather here," was slyly mentioned... Ok, maybe I did want them to be a little jealous. After all, they've all run marathons and run very fast. I had to have something.... :) But there was this tiny voice that said I didn't need to be as tough as them to gut it out and run in the cold.
Until yesterday! Yes, Texas had snow, and ice, and it was very cold! At first I had a weenie attitude, but at some point I realized, this is my chance! I can be a serious runner too! I put on my neck gaiter/hat, gloves, under armor, sweats, long sleeved shirt, light jacket and heavy jacket and went running. I looked like I was going to rob the 7-11. The only part of my skin that showed was the opening in my hat where my eyes were and I had covered that with sunglasses in case of snow blindness. (Well, I did live in the Rockies and that was a problem there anyway) People looked out their cars at me impressed. I assumed that's what that look on their face was, what else could it have been? (Don't answer that) Okay, there really wasn't a lot of snow or ice on the sidewalks, but I carefully ran the 7 miles to Plano and 7 miles back. I bet there aren't a lot of people that live in Texas that can say they ran 14 miles in the snow. I am a beast, running in the snow!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Becoming Utilitarian
The other day I got a call from my girlfriend. You know, a girl that's a friend? She was hoping I would come over to her house, while her baby was sleeping, and help her with some music stuff. Problem: Mark had my van and his car was broken. Solution: run to her house! :) According to my Hal Higdon Marathon Training Schedule I was supposed to run 6 miles that day, her house was 3.5 miles away and I needed to do 2 miles of a timed run according to my coach. Now, I know this isn't exactly what Hal intended when he said to run 6 miles, but, hey...how cool is it to run to somebody's house out of necessity? Pretty cool! I guessed how long it would take me to run there and headed out. 1st mile - rough, felt pretty sore, stopped and stretched my calves. 2nd mile - felt a little better. 3rd mile - felt MUCH better and ran it at a 9:30 pace. Ran the last 1/2 mile to Kristi's house and felt very proud.
After helping with her music I keyed up the ipod, turned my gps watch back on and headed home. I felt GREAT! I ran the last few miles quickly and then walked once I got to Target.
Too bad I didn't bring my wallet and a backpack. I could have gone shopping....now that's what I call utilitarian! :)
After helping with her music I keyed up the ipod, turned my gps watch back on and headed home. I felt GREAT! I ran the last few miles quickly and then walked once I got to Target.
Too bad I didn't bring my wallet and a backpack. I could have gone shopping....now that's what I call utilitarian! :)
Monday, January 3, 2011
Tired
Today I ran 13 miles, only half of what I'm training for and yet I was soooo tired. I ran the first 3 in 11 minutes and the rest were 12 minute miles. Ugh. That's not very fast. I guess training for the marathon should be tiring, considering that I'm trying to build muscles and endurance. In fact, if I really look at it, I wasn't as tired as I was when I ran my 1/2 in November, and I haven't run that far since then. So I should be really excited about it. But, I'm just too tired. :)
Sunday, January 2, 2011
The Most Brutal Run
I did one of the hardest runs the other day. I can't say it was the hardest run of all time because I'm pretty sure that's reserved for the days when I couldn't run without gasping for air, but it was brutal! Why? Well, I'm so glad you asked! :)
I've been given my weekly runs by my coach and one day a week I run intervals. I do a warm up run, intervals, and then my cool down. Now, when I hear warm up or cool down, I usually would think 5-7 min. But, no! I'm supposed to run 6 miles that day, my intervals total a mile, so I run 2 1/2 miles, do the intervals, then another 2 1/2 miles! And, no, I am not kidding.
The whole reason I needed a coach in the first place is that I couldn't seem to make myself do intervals. I would tell myself, most severely, that I needed to do them. I would list all the benefits, like increased speed, it boosts calorie burn, it'll increase my cardiovascular fitness, but to no avail. I just could not make myself run them. Well, now I know why. They are HARD! They make it hard to breathe, take lots of energy and make me really, really tired! But somehow, when my coach (who lives in Iowa by the way) tells me to do intervals I do them. And so, I configured my gps watch for 200 meter intervals with 1 minute rests between, ran an easy pace for 2 1/2 miles and did my intervals. I can't tell you how tempted I was to quit, but I could hear my coach's voice in my head telling me not to rest more than a minute between, to start slower and end faster and all kinds of things. He never lets me get away with anything...or at least I imagine that he doesn't. I imagined myself writing my email to my running team and their disappointment as they read that I'd wimped out on my run. I rested after my intervals and even talked myself into running the next 2 1/2 miles, continuously talked myself into it. I told myself that I really should finish, each and every time I was tempted to quit, because I was building brain stamina. You know, the ability to keep going when you're tired and want to just walk home. I figured it would be wise to run the opposite direction of my house so that I wouldn't turn onto my sidewalk and quit early. I reminded myself that when you run a marathon everyone says you hit a wall and that I needed to learn how to keep going once I've hit walls. And, I just kept talking myself through my run. I let myself run slow, downhill and the easiest course I could find that was away from the house. Wouldn't you know it, I did it! I finished. I imagined how proud Coach and my team would be of me when they found out that I'd worked so hard. But even more importantly, I was really proud of myself!
I've been given my weekly runs by my coach and one day a week I run intervals. I do a warm up run, intervals, and then my cool down. Now, when I hear warm up or cool down, I usually would think 5-7 min. But, no! I'm supposed to run 6 miles that day, my intervals total a mile, so I run 2 1/2 miles, do the intervals, then another 2 1/2 miles! And, no, I am not kidding.
The whole reason I needed a coach in the first place is that I couldn't seem to make myself do intervals. I would tell myself, most severely, that I needed to do them. I would list all the benefits, like increased speed, it boosts calorie burn, it'll increase my cardiovascular fitness, but to no avail. I just could not make myself run them. Well, now I know why. They are HARD! They make it hard to breathe, take lots of energy and make me really, really tired! But somehow, when my coach (who lives in Iowa by the way) tells me to do intervals I do them. And so, I configured my gps watch for 200 meter intervals with 1 minute rests between, ran an easy pace for 2 1/2 miles and did my intervals. I can't tell you how tempted I was to quit, but I could hear my coach's voice in my head telling me not to rest more than a minute between, to start slower and end faster and all kinds of things. He never lets me get away with anything...or at least I imagine that he doesn't. I imagined myself writing my email to my running team and their disappointment as they read that I'd wimped out on my run. I rested after my intervals and even talked myself into running the next 2 1/2 miles, continuously talked myself into it. I told myself that I really should finish, each and every time I was tempted to quit, because I was building brain stamina. You know, the ability to keep going when you're tired and want to just walk home. I figured it would be wise to run the opposite direction of my house so that I wouldn't turn onto my sidewalk and quit early. I reminded myself that when you run a marathon everyone says you hit a wall and that I needed to learn how to keep going once I've hit walls. And, I just kept talking myself through my run. I let myself run slow, downhill and the easiest course I could find that was away from the house. Wouldn't you know it, I did it! I finished. I imagined how proud Coach and my team would be of me when they found out that I'd worked so hard. But even more importantly, I was really proud of myself!
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