Running Chick

Somebody stop me, I do dumb things.

I’ve been feeling a little discomfort in my shins lately, nothing major and completely kept under control by icing & Advil, but it’s there. The other day I got to thinking that maybe I should try my custom orthotics on a run just to see how my legs feel. So, I did.  Now, this wasn’t necessarily a dumb idea per se, but completely ignoring that these custom orthotics gave me such bad knee pain that they knocked me out of consistent running for almost a year, was stupid.

The first mile of my four mile run was kind of promising. No shin pain, no other issues. The next quarter mile, my shins started to ache and by a half mile they were pissed off. I stopped, stretched for a bit and took off again, but I didn’t get too far and had to stop again. I thought about walking back to my house, but decided to take out the insoles and see how that went. The pain went away by probably 50%, and I considered finishing my full run, but for once, I listened to what my body was telling me and ended with three.

I’ve been icing both shins for 20-30 minutes every 1-1/2 to 2 hours and I think I’d downgrade them from pissed off to aggravated. Fingers crossed that they’re okay for my long run on Saturday.

Anyhoo, I decided that I need to add some hill training to my regime so on Tuesday, I sent out to do four miles of hills. I wasn’t interested in doing sprint repeats, I wanted some mid-length upward grinds with some downhill recovery and I found my perfect loop on Jacker Avenue.

The loop (square, more like) is about .8 of a mile long, the first .4 mile (starting at the corner of Jacker & Military) is uphill, the next .2 is flat and the last .2 is downhill.  I did about a mile warm-up and then did the Jacker –> Dodge –> Frue –> Military Road loop three times. It’s a pretty steady half-mile climb from Jacker to Frue and I struggled and stopped once for a few seconds on the first loop and once again on the second loop.

I forgot to press the lap button on my Garmin on each loop, but thanks to my handy dandy SportTracks program, I was able to estimate that I did the first loop in 10:19, the second loop in 10:16 and the last loop in 10:08. I would love to take all the credit for the time on that last loop, but there was some extra downhill in there as I made my way back to my house. I imagine the actual time was slower than the second loop because I could feel myself running out of steam toward the end.

Here’s the elevation profile. It looks ickier than it actually was, but I felt like I got in a really good workout.

I haven’t decided if I want to add hill training to my weekly schedule yet, though. Now that I’m getting into bigger mileage weeks, I’m a little bit scared of overloading my legs and getting injured.

I wrapped up the fifth week of my training plan with a seven mile run this morning that was about as sucky as they get. I don’t know what was wrong with me, my head just couldn’t get in the game.  It could have had something to do with nearly being run over by some asshole in a Maroon Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck on his way to the transfer station. That dumbass cut the corner on his turn toward the transfer station from Gundlach Road and was probably watching the giant semi tractor maneuvering around in the transfer station driveway instead of being on the lookout for anything else, such as the girl decked out head to toe in high-visibility running gear. I took a giant leap to the right to avoid him and let out a string of expletives  and hand gestures that would have made a bystander blush. I came very close to going back to the transfer station to yell at him, but figured it wasn’t worth my time. Then it got me thinking that if I were to take a picture of his license plate and go to the police station with a complaint, would they go to talk to him about it? I should ask.

The rest of my run was thankfully uneventful, aside from the nuclear meltdown that was going on in my head. I am well skilled at running through physical pain (although I’m pretty sure that’s not something to brag about), but I am the worst at being able to ignore the negative thoughts running through my head telling me that it too far, it’s too hard, I’m a bad runner, bla bla bla. So I end up stopping, mad at myself for caving in and telling myself to suck it up and get moving.  In the last three miles, I stopped six times, three of those times were between 5.5 and 6.0 miles. I was pretty disgusted with myself, but on the bright side, I had a pretty decent run, finishing in 1:09. In case you’re wondering, I do stop my watch when I stop with meltdown issues. I figure why add insult to injury and end up with a shitty split.

My previous runs this week, along with today’s were 3 miles @ 9:46, 3 miles @  9:42 and 7 miles @ 9:59.

I have a easy 3 miler to do tomorrow, which will bring me up to a total of 16 miles this week. Last week I ended with 13 miles @ 9:52. I should have done 16, but the weather was so sucky on Sunday I decided to do a trainer ride instead.

In other news, I made some banana bread this afternoon and just as I was about to press the shutter button, somebody stuck their face in the frame, ruining my perfect shot. Bad kitty.

Oh, and somebody else got a fancy new musical instrument.

Any guesses? Bonus points if you can guess the brand of my shoes in the background.

We hit 50 degrees today and I was able to run in a baseball hat & light shirt. I almost broke out the shorts, but I didn’t want to scare everybody with my alabaster legs.  Turns out, of the six runners I did see, I was the only one not wearing shorts. Maybe that means I’m old. Hrmph.

Anyhoo, my legs are feeling lots better (maybe just a smidge tight still) thanks to the yoga, stretching, icing & drug routine I’ve been following since Sunday.

I knocked off three miles on the Canal Road in 29:14 -

My first mile was slow because I got stuck waiting for traffic crossing M-26. Aside from having to slow down and/or stop a couple of times because my heart rate was heading into the stratosphere (high 180s), I felt like I was running at a pace that I could hold for three miles but I would definitely say that pace was not conversational. So, I'm starting to wonder if I should be approaching my mid-week runs in the manner that I have - one to two minutes faster than my long run pace for the given mileage. Maybe it would be better if I did some sort of interval or tempo runs on those days? Or make one day a hill day? As much as they hurt, I'm kind of enjoying running hills now that I'm in decent shape. Sure, I feel like puking when I reach the top, but that's only about half of the time now instead of all the time. I'll have to do some research I guess.

I ran a very short distance on the snowmobile trail at the end of my run. I figured it'd be all hard packed and icy but found out differently when I stepped in a spot that looked firm and I sunk up to my ankle in icy cold slush. It was at that point when learned that my shoes aren't waterproof. Oh well. Shortly after I got back on pavement, four snowmobiles slowly came through. I sort of felt bad for them, but not really.

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Almost forgot. During my Sunday run, I came around a corner and out of nowhere, two little yapping dogs charged at me. Now, even though I’ve had cats for the last several years, I consider myself a dog person. One day, when I move into a bigger house with a bigger yard, I plan on having a dog that I can take running with me. Every now and then (okay, weekly) take stroll through the Copper Country Humane Society’s website to see what dogs they have up for adoption. There’s been a couple that I came very close to going to see, but my house situation isn’t the best for a dog, so I reluctantly put my doggie plans on hold. But, one day I will have a dog. A useful dog. A dogs that isn’t meant to be an accessory. A dog that doesn’t require a sweater to take outside. A dog that does dog stuff. I will not have a little yappy dog like the ones that came after me on Sunday. Crimeny, how I hate those useless little things. No doubt, had these little furry rats been off their leash, I would have had no problem punting them back into their yard and then yelling at the owner for letting them outside without a leash. Anyway, they were on their leash so they didn’t get too close to me, but I’m surprised my ears didn’t start bleeding from the extraordinarily loud barking. Seriously, how can two little things be so blasted loud? Little rats.

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