Plan B

So when I woke up this morning to toss around, I realized as I moved my knee that there was a LOT of pain. However, I just chalked this up to morning pains, got dressed, got in my car and drove to CrossRoads to run my 17. I stretched a little by my car and headed out to the front entrance. No go. I was doing this little limp/hobble kind of run and I had these pains shooting in my knee. I was so angry with myself. I pulled my mobile out of my pocket and called my husband Bill. I explained everything and said "so I guess I shouldn't run my 17 today?" I don't know why I need confirmation on these things. I mean that is the whole reason I called him. I needed someone else to say "yes, you are making a good decision". I was bummed. So I drove on over to our Y and did the elliptical for 45 minutes. You should have seen me getting in and out of the car. I have to lift up under my knee and actually move my leg.

So plan B?
Good old RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation), with lots and lots of emphasis on ice. Something I should have been doing since the Mini-Marathon on Sunday. AND there's more hope. Our coaches mentioned that we could do a two or three week taper. Of course I opted for the three week taper. I think by default I will do the two week taper. That always worked for me in swimming...three weeks would have been way too long. That means next weekend will be my 17-18, pushing my 19-20 out two weeks, followed by two weeks of low mileage. My sports history has told me that yes, I do injure easily and quickly, but if I take care of it I also recover quickly.

I am also going to TRY and take it easy. I am also going to TRY and not beat myself up over this so that I can heal properly and be ready to go next weekend. As Bill reminded me on the phone, my goal is to be healthy at the starting line so that I can actually run the race.

Seventeen on my Own

Yuck. So tomorrow is an off day for me. This weekend I am going to Chicago, so I didn't know when I was going to get my 17 miles in. There is no way I was going to do it on my mini-vacation! I don't care how flat it is up there! So I took one of my personal days. I am not looking forward to running that long on my own. I won't have the Gatorade truck! I guess I will have to incorporate some UDF stops into my run (which never seems to be a problem...it seems like we are ALWAYS passing 3 or 4 UDFs per run) or I can just run with one of the smaller Gatorade bottles. So, even though it is a day off for me, I will still be getting up early AND hitting the road. I don't have our route via email yet, so I might have to create my own!

Some Cool Things I Forgot About

I was being such a cry-baby about my race that I forgot to mention some really cool things I saw during the Mini-Heart Marathon.

One thing that was super cool is that anytime someone from the group saw anyone else from the group, they would cheer them on. There was a lot of opportunity for this since you run the course one way and run it back the other way.

I also thought it was really neat how when the first male and female runners ran by on the way back, everyone on the way up clapped and cheered. Ever since I ran in high school I always thought runners were the nicest atheletes because they recognize things like this, or cheer you on during a race in which they are competing with you. Runners can be extremely unselfish.

But the coolest thing I saw, was this one man who was in front of me. The back of his shirt read: "I've run all" and then had a piece of duct tape on it that said "30". (This was the 30th mini-marathon). That is so cool! I hope that I can have that kind of stamina and that I can keep with running like that!

My Reward System

So I have been rewarding myself for running. I wanted to do something to make me realize how many miles I am actually running, so I decided to put a dollar away for every mile I run. At the end of the week I write myself a check and put it into my savings. This also encourages me to put in ALL of my mileage for the week. At the end of it all I am going to go shopping at Tiffany's. That way, I will always have something to remember my first marathon. It was actually kind of funny because after my race Saturday, when I was feeling down, I said to my husband Bill, "well, that's nine more dollars. Well, nine dollars and thirty cents to be exact." It also makes my long runs more rewarding: 15 miles is 15 more dollars! I haven't started looking for what I want yet. That sounds like a lunchtime activity.

I told a few people in running group about this and they were like "that's a really good idea." My rationale is that you have to reward yourself for doing something that insane to your body!

A Few of my Favorite Running Things (A Top Ten List)

These are just some things I absolutely love when I am running. So I will list them in David-Letterman-order.

10. Breath mints (for afterwards...yuck!)
9. Cran-razz Shot Bloks
8. My Nike Watch with 100 lap memory
7. Body Glide (no more chafing!)
6. Non-cotton socks (the secret to no blisters)
5. My new running skirt
4. Pump It by the Black-Eyed Peas
3. Gatorade (lemon-lime, please)
2. Verbal support
1. My ipod shuffle

I also found a very cool Euro to put on my car! It says "runner girl" on it, so I just had to get it!

What are your favorite running things?

And It WAS the Longest Race Ever

I have very mixed feelings about the Heart Mini-Marathon. I personally felt like a failure...until I weighed in all of the circumstances of the race. Then I felt like I was glad that I finished. Let me back up.

It was a sunny, nice, warm day. Until I started running. Then I recognized it as an unbearably hot, humid, gross day with the sun incessantly beating down on me. Coach Joe says if you are comfortable temperature-wise at the starting line, then you are overdressed. Well, I agree, but how can you get much less than a tank and a running skirt? I was sooooo hot, the entire time. I stopped at every water stop (which I NEVER do) and actually WALKED with my water so that I could consume ALL of it. I also had to stop at a port-o-let. This is like death for me. I NEVER stop at a port-o-let anywhere unless there is absolutely no other option. There was no other option. I even had to wait in a line...in the middle of the race!

There were people on the sidelines cheering and one boy had a sign that said "5k down, 10k to go!" I was like "WHAT?! only 5k down?" It seemed so long. This may also be because I took the first mile out waaaay too fast. 9:20. I felt great at the time. Then I continually added time on.

I was sweating so much that I looked like I took a shower. Gross. And I don't usually sweat a lot.

But the most disappointing thing for me was that I had to walk. Right after the first turn-around which was about the 4th mile. I couldn't believe it. I try NEVER to walk, no matter how tired I am. Then I ran again. Then the next hill I walked. I felt so angry. Anyone from my group who saw me and would have normally said something to me was probably too afraid to do that. Every time I walked I know my face was screwed up into an awful grimace. I was so mad.

At the 8-mile the guy yelling out times yelled "Mile 8! Mile 9 is much better!" Really? Hurrah! I was almost done. LIAR, a huge hill was in front of me. I walked it, telling myself I would run at the top. I started running...another huge hill.

By now my time was totally screwed up. I was behind a guy with a shirt that said "if you can read this, you've just been passed by a speedwalker". Of course. So I picked up the pace as much as I could (which was laughable) and finished with him. They were playing "Celebrate" at the finish line and that's when I started to cry. I was so mad at myself.

1:45 something. (I can't find my official time on the site because apparantly I am not on there for some reason.)

I just have to learn how to run in the heat.

Longest Race Ever

Last night was an easy 40 minutes. I have come to the conclusion that I have long-distance running in me now. Short runs are not my thing anymore. It seems like it takes me about 4 miles to get in the rhythm of things and those first 4 miles are really hard for me. After that, I sort of fall into the run. It is nice. But it is weird to do these 4 mile runs when it takes me 4 miles to get warmed up.

Anyway, this weekend is the Heart Mini-Marathon 15k. I am excited because this will be my longest race ever. The course looks pretty tough. We have run just a smidgeon of it before, along Columbia Parkway. The coaches described it as having 3 big hills, the last one being at the end.

What I am looking forward to the most is IHOP. After every race, my mom, dad, husband and I go to IHOP and I get one of those ridiculous breakfasts with pancakes, eggs (which go to my husband for his hashbrowns), sausage, bacon and hashbrowns. Yum. Not fun to think about during the race, but great afterwards. (As you can probably tell, I am not one of the most healthy runners).

Gross! Gross! Gross!

If you are easily grossed out, do NOT read this next post.

So I've been having toenail issues, which I guess is a common thing for marathoners. Last weekend, I noticed that my big toenails on both feet had these splits in them. Not at the top, where it would be convenient, but in the middle...on both sides. I was just waiting for it to crack completely off. I put bandaids around both of my big toes before my long run on Saturday, if nothing else, to keep them on for the run. After about 11 miles I noticed this swooshy feeling right around my big toe on my left foot. This was accompanied by a lot of pain in the big toe. Just great!

I stopped at the Gatorade stop with about 2 miles to go and proclaimed to one of my coaches "I think I lost my big toenail." She said "It'll happen." Then she told me how shes lost a lot of them and how her toenails are just starting to look normal again after two years. Automatically I think "No more cute open-toed heels?!" I CANNOT do that. I do not mean to sound shallow or overly girly, but I LOVE wearing high-heeled sandles, and getting pedicures all summer. I think I went through all of high school without a day of unpolished toenails.

When I got home, I dreaded taking off my socks. I gingerly pulled away the bandaids. They were fine. It was my bandaid wooshing around in my shoe. False alarm.

All I know is that I am not going down without a fight! I went out and got a toenail clipper and something called miracle nail and gave myself a very careful pedicure. So far so good! I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed!

It's a Miracle!

I FINALLY found a food that works for me, pre-run! I have had this horrible problem with not being able to eat anything before my runs. That was my whole theory "don't eat anything before you run" before I started adding on mileage. I mean, it just isn't safe not to eat anything before you do 9, 10, 11 plus miles. In fact, I found out that you are actually supposed to eat WHILE you are marathoning...hence all of the Gu, Shot Bloks, etc. (I think I talked about these in a previous post). Anyway, I've tried everything; cereal, toast, toaster strudel, luna bars, pop tarts, even cookies. And the trial and error method is NOT fun. Well, last week when I was running on Wednesday from home I was soooooo hungry. My goal was to get in the house, let the dog out and go out the door. I KNEW I shouldn't eat anything given my history, but I was sooooo hungry. I cut off a huge slice of the birthday cake my grandma made me. It is this really fluffy pound-cake type cake. I shoved the whole thing in my mouth and was out the door.
It was fine. What? It was fine through the WHOLE RUN.

So I tried it again at 6:30 am on Saturday, pre-15-mile run. Once again, it was fine.
Hurrah!

My mom says it is because it has like six eggs in it.

Not the healthiest, but it definately works for me!

I am a tool

I am a tool for many reasons. The first being that our easy 7 mile run seemed worse to me than our 15 mile run. I felt so thirsty the entire time, I kept looking for Coach Joe's truck with Gatorade on it that usually meets us halfway. I also felt like I was sprinting the entire time (which I was not, according to my time). I said something to the woman behind me at the end of the run, like "wow. that was worse than the 15-miler." She looked at me like I was crazy.

I can attribute this (bad 7 miler) to maybe a few things.
1. I am super stressed at work which makes me tired at the end of the day.
2. I was running with some people that I don't usually run with who are faster than I usually run.
3. My body is still fatigued from the 15 miler.

Or all three.

Anyway. The second reason I am a tool is because I showed up at our running happy hour and only stayed for one drink. I was so exhausted and needed real food. I think what I really need is rest. I think tonight, which is supposed to be a "cross training or rest" night will be a rest night for me, even though it usually isn't. Hopefully, that will get me back on track!

Side note: there are a great bunch of articles in this week's Newsweek that talk about the benefits of working out consistently. One more reason to keep marathon training!

Hurrah!

Saturday I ran the farthest I have ever run. Ever. 15 miles! I thought for sure I was going to die, because I remember the 11 miler for me was insane. I didn't think I could make it past the 9th mile. But really, this was not so bad. I don't know if I was just more mentally prepared for it or what. I had some great songs on my ipod to keep me going, which I'm sure helped. I found that when I am really into a song the hills really aren't that bad.

There were also some other marathon groups out doing similar routes...go figure, since we were running a lot of the course. This was very confusing. One group was running the opposite way we were, but the other group had runners going in the same direction we were for some of the route. What made it confusing was when I got to Mariemont. Since there were only two people in front of me, I figured they knew where they were going and followed them. AND Mariemont was really confusing to me anyway. There are all of these weird turns on the route that don't make a lot of sense. The email that went out with the route had the wrong directions and so when Bill (my husband) and I drove the course we got lost too. So nothing really looked that unfamiliar. Well, the girl in front of me and I missed a turn on Settle and continued in a circle. We were following some guy who wasn't in our group. Whoops. I guess it was ok, because we did end up meeting up with the group on Mariemont Square.

When everyone was finished we were all hobbling around like we couldn't walk. Coach Joe said to lie on the floor as close to the wall as you could and to put your legs up against the wall. Apparantly this helps get all the lactic acid buildup out of your legs and helps you recover more quickly. It felt soooooo good to do. Usually when people say that stretches feel good I think they are crazy. This one really did feel good now. And believe it or not, I was not really sore the next day. That doesn't even happen for me on 7 mile runs! Anyway, I felt so much better about this run than my other long runs. So now I'm even kind of sort of looking forward to the 17-18 miles in two weeks!

Wow! It's So Light Out!

I LOVE Daylight Savings Time. EVEN THOUGH we lost an hour of sleep last weekend. It is nice to know that I can get home from work, run my 7 miles and still have it be light out. Even in the rain last night it was light enough that I felt safe enough to not get hit by cars. I still had to push it to really get out the door once I got home. To do this, I brought my running clothes to work and changed into them right before I left. Normally I do not feel weird about this, but yesterday I did for some reason. You know, walking around downtown to get to your car in bright green shorts? Or maybe it was my gleeming white new shoes.

I went to Bob Roncker's Running Spot this weekend because they were having a shoe sale, promising myself not to buy anything unless it was exactly the same kind of shoes I had before. I had the Spot Check done there in November, where they watch/tape you on a treadmill and fit shoes to you based on how you run. I liked my shoes and they seemed to work well, so I wanted the exact same kind. Luckily they had a pair! They are not bright orange like my last ones though, which I kind of liked, but hey! they were on sale!

My run was great last night. I felt really good. I was a little nervous about all of the hills I had to tackle, because my shins have been killing me on the hills lately. I psyched myself up though and it felt great.

I was a little bummed because I had only done 6.8 miles and felt like a little bit of a slacker...that is definately on the low end of my training runs now. But when my husband later said "wow, that's more than a 10k right?" it made me feel better about it. For some reason I guess that sounds like more. :)

Blog Love

Tonight is running on my own in the neighborhood. I am kind of excited because it is so warm out! I have a 6.8 mile route all mapped out to make up for the 7 miles I lost out on last night. (I tried to make it 7, but just couldn't get it to work out right. I guess we're talking about point two measly miles so it shouldn't matter).

Anyway, I have been getting so many great and encouraging comments on my blog, which just makes me feel, well, really good. It is so nice to know that there is a community of people out there struggling with their runs right along with me. Believe it or not, knowing that people are reading my blog helps me through some of those tough runs.

Now that my training is almost halfway through I think that I realize one of the most important things to my training is a great support system. My husband, parents, friends and family, running group and now blog all give that to me. So thank you all!

Stalled Again

Tonight I am supposed to do 7 miles with the group. I checked out the route in our email from Coach Fung and it actually looks like an enjoyable 7 miles. Unfortunately I am feeling a bit under the weather. This is especially unfortunate since it is absolutely beautiful out! I was looking forward to running in shorts and short sleeves. I was also looking forward to using my new watch that I got for my birthday this past weekend. It has 100 lap memory which is really great (not because I am running 100 miles, but because most watches that I've looked at have only had a 20 lap memory. How are you supposed to get mile-splits for 26 miles with a 20 lap memory). It also has a really great function where you can set up goal splits and it will count them down for you. For example, if I want to do my first mile at 10:00 pace and my second at 9:30 and my third at 9:30, and then back up to 10:00 I can set my watch to tell me that. The only thing I've used it for so far though, is keeping track of the time I need to ice my legs versus the time I need to not ice my legs.
The other thing that bugs me is that we have 15-16 miles next week. Luckily though, it is light out, so tomorrow, which is supposed to be an off night for me, can be a 7-mile run.

Does Skating = Running?

Last night my friends and I went out to celebrate what my one friend Susie called, me "turning double fourteen". We decided to go to the Western Rollarama and a couple of bars. The best part was that my friend, Anne gave me a tiara and a scepter to skate around with the whole time and so all the little girls there kept wishing me happy birthday. I think the DJ (a motherly type) thought it was a little weird to see a bunch of old people skating. But she didn't yell at me to take off my tiara even though all night she had to keep screaming to people to take off their hats. Now, it might seem funny that skating could be a workout, but I am counting it as one because after I made the first round my shins were screaming at me. I am actually surprised that I am not sore today. We all had a good time, but the worst surprise is that I can't do my 13-14 mile run today. No, not because I partied too hard, but because I am sitting here at work starting a massive project that is due on Tuesday. Fun. I am going to try and get the run in tomorrow, but it will be hard to get motivated without the group with me. :(

Happy Birthday to Me!

No run last night! Just the eating of delicious delicious fondue. Mmmmmmm. Darn. Now I have to change my profile to reflect my new, older age.

Sister Timothea Kept Me Going

Well, not really, but I will explain later.

Last night was hills. Which is NOT what the email to the group today said. All the email said was: Tomorrow night we will be at Game Day at 6:30 and will be heading to Eden Park." Once we were all gathered at Game Day Cafe, Joe told us we would have an "easy 1.5 mile run to Cliff Street" which is where we would be doing our hills. Cliff Street? That does not sound fun. Neither was our "easy" run. If you are familiar with Mt. Adams, you know what I mean when I say it is neither flat or easy. We took Columbia Parkway to the steps leading to Hill Street. Luckily we did not run the steps. I think I would have died. Anyway, just getting to the hill was a pain. I had to stop and walk for the first time, which I never, never, do. One of the twins even stopped when she came up behind me and asked if I was ok. I must have looked like I was really hurting.

This hill was amazing. It had about 8 turns to the summit. It was neverending. I just mapped it on mapmyrun.com to check out the elevation. Basically, over .34 miles, we went from .75 feet to 811 feet. Crazy. ( I will have to take my husband, Bill, out later to drive the hill so I can show him how crazy it is. It just makes me feel better. You know, "look what I can do!") The workout was: start at the bottom and go halfway and then back. Everyone got done with the first one and said "that was only halfway?!!!" Then we did the whole hill halfway and back. Repeat both.

Let me tell you, I was barely moving. Here's where Sr. Timothea comes in. I had this religion teacher in high school who was very old-school. Anyway, she always said that if you had a little voice in your head that made you not do things that you were supposed to do, like help your mom clean, that it was really the devil and he was tempting you to do his hellish works. What you had to do is yell "Stop it, Devil" in your head and just do that good thing. Because I was probably delirious running these hills I had these thoughts come to me out of nowhere. So I yelled "Stop it, Devil!" in my head when I was thinking about walking, which made me laugh almost out loud, but it also made me finish the hill. I probably think this story is way more funny than anyone else would and I can't believe I just wrote it down. I think of some crazy stuff when I run.

Anyway, just when I finished the last full repeat, I was thinking "I'm done! I'm done!" But then Joe gave us a choice; we could do one more full repeat or two halves. I'm no idiot. I picked two halves. That's two downhills along with the uphills.

Then he promised us an easy run back, which we all did not believe. He THEN revealed to us that he didn't even make up the run there, the other coaches did. So this one really would be easy.

All right. I am actually GLAD I labored through the hills. Even running back I felt faster and that I could run easier. But it still stank.

Treading (Just Barely)

I absolutely cannot stand treadmill. But I realize that it is my best option for non-group runs from time to time if for nothing else besides the safety factor. So last night I cooked up a little workout with the help of an article I found on Runner's World. Everything was on 1.0 resistance to simulate the wind. I was supposed to do:

7 minutes at 6.0 mph
2 minutes at 6.4 mph
2 minutes at 6.6 mph
5 minutes at 6.8 mph
6 minutes at 6.4 mph
6 minutes at 6.6 mph
5 minutes at 6.2 mph
5 minutes at 6.0 mph

So I got to about 28 minutes and I was sweating like crazy, breathing heavy and I had this sharp pain on the outsides of my calves. I decided to check my pulse: 219. Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Time to stop. I felt awful. But I knew I had to stop. There was no way that was healthy. I am just very bummed overall because I feel like my training has not been going well. I feel like I SHOULD be going much faster even in my training and I just can't do it. I can't figure out whether I should push harder and if that would lead to injury (something I've dealt with in the past a lot) or if I should stay where I am. I feel like I am not pushing hard enough because I know of my past runs, but I just really do NOT want to get injured. Rant, rant, rant. I am just frustrated.

Race Day 10k

Saturday we did the "Strides of March" 10k for our group run. It was at Lunken airport so I wasn't race day nervous since it is so flat. It was kind of cold and was snowing like crazy! The wind was tossing us all around the course. I tried to keep up with Alice, a girl I usually run with...and for the first 5k that was fine and then she just took off. So then I just concentrated on me getting through the race. I knew I wasn't going to have the 9:09 mile pace that I had in my last 10k because I have been training more on distance which in turn, has made me slower. I was aiming for a 10:00 mile. At each mile they called out our splits and I was making about a 9:30 pace. With two miles left, I picked up the pace. I was feeling okay, but not great, but I kicked it in anyway. I picked off 4 people. There was a guy in front of me who kept walking and then running. I so wanted to pass him. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against runner/walkers. I just get mad at myself when I see them because I think "Hey! I've been running this WHOLE THING. I must be REALLY SLOW if walkers can beat me." I was fighting fighting fighting at the end. He was fighting against me and then I think he just let me finish. I ended with a 59:22:00, which is a 9:35 pace...which I do NOT understand. I was consistently 9:30, picked it up for the last two and ended up with 9:35? Something was off. Maybe the people at each mile weren't really at each mile. Anyway, I am still mad at myself for not getting a PR. I know I am training for endurance but I feel like it shouldn't matter. I am still training harder than I was for the Thanksgiving Day 10K, so I feel like I should be going faster in my training runs and my races. I know. I am just being a pessimist. I am doing great. I have never done this before. blah, blah-blah blah blah blah blah.

Killer Running Music

Music is sooooo essential to me having a good run. I have no idea what I am going to do during the marathon since headphones are banned. Here are my favorites for my runs:

• Baba O'Reilly – The Who
• Lucas with the Lid Off – Lucas
• Pump It – The Black-Eyed Peas
• Ding Dong Daddy (On the D Car Line) – Cherry Poppin Daddies
• Run Like Hell – Pink Floyd
• Swing Set – Jurassic 5
• Movies of Myself – Rufus Wainwright
• Sowing the Seeds of Love – Tears for Fears
• Birthday – The Beatles
• Every Little Thing She Does is Magic – The Police
• Space Dementia – Muse
• Hook – Blues Traveller
• I'm Just a Girl – No Doubt
• Pressure – Billy Joel
• Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy – Queen
• Fight Test – The Flaming Lips
• Get Him Back – Fiona Apple
• Porcelain – Moby
• Champagne Supernova – Oasis
• Raspberry Beret – Prince
• Benny and the Jets – Elton John
• The Way We Get By – Spoon
• The Irony of It All – The Streets
• Streets Have No Name – U2
• Selling the Drama – Live
• Mr. Brightside – The Killers
• Rock Me Now - Metric

I mean, how can you listen to Baba O'Reilly and not want to run? It's almost Pavlovian for me. I told my dad one time "How could you not run in the 70's, the music was so conducive to it?" I also am really digging "Sowing the Seeds of Love" right now. I know. I am weird.