Running Chick

This was my third year running the Fox Cities (insert big sponsor here) Half Marathon.  The first year I was very undertrained, not to mention 10-15 pounds heavier.  My longest run was 10 miles, the last five of which I did after turning my ankle and taking a nasty fall in the middle of the road.   At the end of that run, my ankle, knee and hand were swollen and angry and I had blood pouring down my knee.  I remember spending an agonizingly long time (although it was probably a few minutes) sitting in the bathroom while Josh picked rocks out of my knee.  My knee bears the scars from this crash, there goes my modeling career.

The second year, I was better trained and was 15 pounds lighter but I had muscle strains in both my calves.  I could barely run 2 miles let alone 13.1 but  I ran it anyway and regretted it from mile seven to the end.  Painful, painful, painful.  The next day, I could barely walk.

This year, I had high hopes that I would finally enter this race healthy and ready.  Enter medial tibial stress syndrome/tendonitis.  The custom orthotics took care of the primary problems, but the tendonitis is taking longer to go away.  I think it just needs rest.  Lots of rest.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of rest time to give it. So I tried to keep up my training as much as I could without aggravating my legs.  It worked, but I was barely making 13 miles/week.  I pondered just skipping the HM altogether because I didn’t want a repeat of last year.  Even when I picked up my packet at the expo, I was still undecided about what I was going to do.  The day before the race, I decided to do it and have fun.

I didn’t pay much attention to my watch and the average pace I was keeping, I just ran at a comfortable pace.  I knew I was doing pretty well when I made it through miles six to nine without my usual mental breakdown.  I met Josh around seven miles and gave my legs a preventative dose of topical pain-killer, which I think helped in the later miles.  Mile eleven came and went without issue.  It wasn’t until mile twelve that my legs finally started to give me some trouble, but it wasn’t from the tendonitis, it was from the pounding they were taking from the concrete.  I switched to a 3:1 interval and actually ran some negative interval splits in this last mile.  That’s a first for me.

So, let’s compare the last three years:

2007: 2:39:48 @ 12:12 (6.9 mile 1:21:14)

2008: 2:23:27 @ 10:57 (6.9 mile 1:13:27)

2009: 2:23:07 @ 10:55 (6.9 mile 1:13:55)

I wasn’t really expecting to be so close to my time last year, not did I expect my pace to pretty much maintain the entire time.  Somehow, with no expectations and and no pressure, I was able to run that race without feeling like I could have done better in the end.  Go figure.

What’s up next?  Well, the only thing that’s going to make my tendonitis go away for good is not running.  So, it’s a whole lotta rest for me.  Although I must admit I really wanted to go for a trail run yesterday.  It’s a sickness. 

Okay, I’ll admit it.  I’ve been secretly considering purchasing a mountain bike for a while now.  The whole riding off-road, bombing through the woods thing appeals to me.  Plus, I’m fortunate enough to live in an area with numerous trail systems so there’s pretty much endless options.  I’ve been to enough of my friend James’s races, watching people of all shapes and sizes come rolling across the finish line, to begin to think that maybe I’d like to do a race one day.

However, every time I start to think that maybe I should get serious about buying, James does something scary like almost crack his head open crashing into a tree.  Or almost impale himself on his handlebars after bouncing off several trees.  And that just reminds me of the thing that doesn’t appeal to me about mountain biking – crashing.  Seems like everybody does it, but the thought coming head to head with a tree, or going over the handlebars freaks me right the hell out.  I think that the only way I could actually ride without crashing is to go really, really, REALLY slow.  But I figure if I’m going to go that slow it certainly can’t be fun, and if I’m not going to have fun then why bother?  After that, nothing ever becomes of my mountain bike ownership thoughts.

Except that last week when mountain bikes floated to the top of my thoughts, I actually did something about it.  After work on Friday, Josh and I took a ride the The Bike Shop and I tried out two bikes.

The first one, a Jamis Durango Femme 1.0 (small), fit me pretty well after the stock stem was replaced by something longer.  The Durango has a locking front shock, which is something I’ve never ridden before.  It was a strange feeling on the road to have the front going up & down (frankly it seemed rather useless), but after smoothly going over some curbs I soon realized it’s purpose – to take away the impact of the bumps! (Quit rolling your eyes.  Yes, I know.  It’s a shock, that’s what it’s supposed to do.  I’m new to the MTB world and I’ve never ridden a bike with one, so give me a break.)

The second bike I tried was a Scott Contessa 50 (small).  This bike was a better fit at first (until the stock stem on the Jamis was replaced) but Josh said that it was an inferior bike and I wasn’t allowed to buy it.  No matter, it had goofy decals anyway so I wasn’t going to argue.

This week, I’m going to head to Cross Country Sports and see what they have.  I’m hoping to try out a Trek 6000 or a Trek Skye Disc, but for now the Jamis is the one to beat.  The nice thing about buying at the end of the season is that the prices are very reasonable.  I imagine the dealers don’t want a bunch of 2009s hanging around when the 2010s come out so they’re priced to sell.

Don’t worry, I know I owe a race report from the Appleton HM.  I’ll get to that eventually.