Running Chick

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve had enough of this schizophrenic weather we’ve been having. Tuesday, I was out running in a t-shirt and shorts. Yesterday it started to rain, then snow, and today it looks like this:

Since my cupboards are bare, I get to clean this mess off my car and go to the grocery store so we don’t die of starvation.

Scout had been enjoying daily romps on the deck. Now all she can do is stand in the doorway and sniff.

She is not pleased.

Anyway, after ten days off from running and a lot of cross training on the bike trainer, I hit the road again on Tuesday with high hopes. Unfortunately, as is typical with me, I overdid it with the weights the night before and my hamstrings and calves were in high revolt.  I got a very, very slow two miles done and walked the last mile back to my house. That was the day it was almost 70 degrees out, so I had a very pleasant walk home and became one with my ice packs.

I felt much better on Thursday and had an pain-free 3 mile run after work.

I was supposed to run 10 miles on Saturday, but I’m trying to cut back on my mileage while I’m working my way through the shin pain, so I decided five miles would be sufficient. Then I looked outside and saw what is typically knows as a “wintery mix” – an evil combination of freezing rain, ice pellets and snow. A sane person probably would have stayed inside, but I figured I should probably just get out there because you never know what sort of conditions you’re going to have on race day, especially in this neck of the woods, so off I went. I ended up being completely soaked from head to toe, but I did have pretty good run, and had the opportunity of break in these babies:

They’re called Brooks Ravenna and Brooks claims they’re mid way between a neutral shoe (for people who don’t have any pronation issues) and a stability shoe (for people who over-pronate – ankles roll inward).  I’ve been custom fitted by five different running stores and each time, I’ve been deemed either neutral or an over-pronator and I’ve never had the same analysis two times in a row.  So, I can only assume that I’m probably square in the middle of those two classes.  Neutral shoes don’t provide me with enough support and stability shoes give me too much support, so after much reading, I decided on the Ravennas. Plus, they were only like $4, can’t beat that! Before you start emailing me for the coupon code, I got a gift card from Josh for Christmas and then found a 10% off coupon online.  Since they were last year’s model, they were on also super sale. I do loves a bargain.

Well, alrighty, that’s the report for this week. Looking at the week ahead, the plan is to keep on icing, stretching, drugging and massaging and build my mileage back up to normal. Go me.

Spring has finally arrived here in Yooperland. It’s been teasing us for the last month or so with sun and warmish temps, but then Winter decided to give it one last go and we got dumped with heavy, wet snow last Monday. I had about 6” on my deck and a driveway berm that was just about up to the bumper on my truck (thanks, plow guy). We were back to our regularly scheduled Spring temps by mid-week and by Friday, all the snow was gone.

My trainer rides have been going pretty well, but I was not looking forward to doing 90+ minutes on Saturday to replace my 9-mile long run and was very happy to see high 50s in the forecast for Saturday. Road ride, wahoo! I decided to do my usual M-203 to Calumet/Josh’s house route because there’s not a lot of traffic on that road and it’s pretty scenic.

I think I mentioned in previous posts that I was pretty certain that my trainer rides were the reason for dropping one minute/mile on my runs so I was very interested to see if it also rubbed off on my road riding, too. My first clue was when I averaged 17.7 mph to McLain Park when I usually hover right around 13-15 mph. After the park, there’s a little climb.

Well, maybe not so little:

That dang hill goes on for around five miles of forever. There’s a slight dip around mile 15 which always fools me into thinking that the punishment is over and then – ha,ha just kidding! - back to more climbing. My speed and my legs usually take a pretty good beating on this hill, but I was able to keep things moving enough so my average speed only dropped to 14 mph when I finally reached the top. I rolled into Josh’s driveway in 1:25 and in previous rides, it’s been closer to 1:50. I think I can now officially give all the credit to my increased speed to riding my trainer 2 times/week since February. Extra bonus, my legs aren’t sore and neither are other unmentionable parts. Yays all around.  Josh and I puttered around his neighborhood so he could test out some new tires on his bike so my entire ride ended up being around 27 miles. I was going to go for 30, but the bagel I had for breakfast had long worn off and I was seriously hungry, so we ditched the rest of the ride and went to the Michigan House for lunch.

Two more days and then on Tuesday, I get to see how my legs feel about running.

Another week in the bag. This is what, week 6? I can’t remember and I’m too lazy to check the calendar.

My Saturday morning long run of eight miles was much better that last week’s seven. I didn’t get run over, I felt decent and thanks to Lady Gaga, Radiohead, Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry and Mumford and Sons my head stayed in the game. I don’t typically run with music because I like to hear what’s going on around me, but after my mental breakdown last week, I thought it might help. And it did, too. Around the five mile mark when the first negative thoughts popped into my head, I cranked up the volume on my Shuffle and let Lady Gaga tell me all about how she wanted to go ride around on somebody’s disco stick and was able to keep the negativity away.  Such a poet she is, that Gaga.

My runs were a little bit slower this week than last:  4 miles @ 10:18 (hill training), 3 miles @ 10:15 (shin meltdown) and 8.15 miles @ 10:40 (long) for a total of 15.15 miles @ 10:29.

I tried a new product on Saturday, Nuun active hydration tablets.  I typically fill my flasks with a Gatorade (orange)/water mix, but when I was rummaging around in my running box on Friday night to find a gel, I came across a Nuun single-tablet packet that I bought last summer but never used. I wasn’t planning on taking anything but water in my flasks because I forgot to pick up Gatorade, so I was happy to find that little tablet.  On Saturday morning, I filled up a measuring cup with 16 oz. of water and dropped the tablet in and it fizzed it’s way to life, just like Alka Seltzer.  I drank one flask on my run (maybe a little bit from the second flask), and I thought it tasted pretty yummy, way better than my watered down Gatorade and definitely less sweet. It was slightly fizzy, which was a little bizarre & off-putting at first, but after my second water break I didn’t really notice it. The best thing is I didn’t suffer from any post-run stomach issues with the Nuun, like I do when I use Gatorade. I’m certain it’s because Nuun is sugar free. I think I’ve found my new hydration product.

And, finally, the shin report. I had more discomfort that I’m comfortable with during my eight mile run on Saturday and I’ve decided that in order to not let them get any more out of hand, I’m going to take next week off. My schedule called for two four mile and one nine mile run and I don’t think there was any way between today and my next run that they were going to settle down enough, so it’s going to be a week of trainer rides for me.  I don’t really mind riding my trainer, but it does get a bit boring after 30 minutes (my longest ride has been an hour).  I’m going to try and do 90 minutes on Saturday to make up for my long run and I’m already worried that I’m going to be bored to tears. I know people who ride their trainer for four or five hours! How they do that without going bonkers is beyond me.

I also ordered The Injured Runner dvd which I should get on Tuesday. It looked like it had some pretty useful exercises for the typical injuries it seems like I’m always getting and thanks to a discount coupon, I was able to get it for around $15 with free 2-day shipping from runningwarehouse.com. I’m hoping it helps.