Running Chick

All day today, I’ve been feeling like I have a hangover. Thanks Daylight Savings Time! I suppose it didn’t help that I didn’t get to bed until after 1:00AM and the alarm was blaring at 4:30 so Josh could get his butt to the airport in time for his 6:00 flight to Amherst, MA. At least I got to go back to sleep.

I dragged myself out of bed at 9:00 (which was 8:00 according to my body) and sucked down the coffee until the cobwebs dissipated enough for me to throw on some running clothes and head out the door. My schedule called for a short, easy run, but my body wasn’t too cooperative. I think it was pretty ticked off at me for running five miles on Saturday, and then blowing off my usual post-run stretching routine for a four-hour uncomfortable car ride. Josh and I had spent the previous three days shopping and bumming around Appleton, WI on a short vacation and Josh wheeled and dealed himself a new truck (I don’t want to steal his thunder, so hop over to his blog for the details). We were picking up the truck at 10:30AM on our way out of town, and I had to get my five miler in before we checked out of the hotel, so we were cutting it pretty close by the time we finally got back, thus stretching was skipped. Not the best idea I’ve ever had, today my legs were tight and hurt. Thanks to some ibuprofen, ice packs and 45 minutes of yoga, they’re feeling pretty good now. Tonight I’ll bust out the foam roller and maybe do some very light yoga to get the final kinks out.

I did two runs while we were in Appleton. Three miles on Thursday morning and five on Saturday. Our hotel was close to the mall and the area wasn’t very runner friendly (lots of traffic, no sidewalks) so we headed downtown. Josh drank coffee and used the wi-fi in Brewed Awakenings while I did my thing. Thanks to downtown Appleton having an awesome sidewalk system that was cleared of snow, and (mostly) ice free, I never had to venture out into traffic. Plus, I found lots of interesting things to look at to keep my mind distracted: neat little shops and restaurants along College Avenue, interesting buildings at Lawrence University, tons of other runners and walkers, nesting eagles along the Fox River, and old mills and factories converted into eclectic shopping & dining centers. I use a GPS tracking program called InstaMapper for my iPhone, so Josh was able to stalk track me to make sure I didn’t get stolen. He grabbed a screen shot of my Saturday route. Note that I made seven bridge crossings with two repeat crossings:

That little cluster of yellow dots around the red dot is me doing loops by the coffee shop in order to complete my distance.  Each time I went by, the people sitting in the window gave me strange looks. I bet they were really surprised when, on my third time by, I came in & sat down at Josh’s table. It was cold, with a 30mph wind that I fought the entire way so I bet I looked really purty when I was done. Oh well, I’ll never see those folks again!

Anyway, today’s run marked the end of my third week of half marathon training and here’s what those weeks looked like:

• Week 1: 9.68 miles @ 10:45
• Week 2: 11.55 miles @ 10:23
• Week 3: 12.54 miles @ 10:36

I’m following a random training plan I found on the intarwebs that looked reasonable given my injury situation. The only problem I have with this plan is that I’m struggling trying to figure out the difference between “easy, conversational pace” and “very easy, comfortable pace”.  I run alone so conversational pace, basically the pace at which I could yak to another person without struggling for breath, is tough to define. I’ve tried mumbling a few words to myself while I’m running just to see what it felt like, but that’s only when I was certain nobody else was around. And, I’m too embarrassed to carry out a complete conversation with myself so that’s out of the question. So I’ve sort of decided that I’ll try to run my mid-week runs in the 9:30-10:30 range, my Saturday run in the 10:00-11:00 range and the Sunday run in the 11:00-12:00 range. It seems to be working okay so far, even though I can only hit my mid-week range about half of the time.

Next week is 16 miles. That’s a big jump for my injury-prone legs so I really need to make sure to keep up with my my post-run maintenance if I don’t want to end up on the injured list.

Almost two weeks have passed since my last update? Sheesh, where does the time go?

I’m just coming to the end of week 2 of my 12-week half marathon training program, and things are going well. I’m quite a bit faster than I anticipated I’d be (more about that in another post) and I’m not having any leg-related issues. However, I’m about to start creeping into the weekly mileage danger zone and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned. Fingers crossed.

Last Saturday, we spent the afternoon in Copper Harbor tromping around Fort Wilkins, boozing at Zik’s and cheering James on in the Backcountry Ski Race. He came in first in the downhill race and second overall. Yay James! There’s lots of photos in the gallery, but here are some of my favorites.

Orange juice? No, bottom of the barrel Bell’s Winter Wheat. Um, pass.

Josh has a camera that takes videos. Joy. He has a YouTube channel, too.

This weekend is the Copper Dog 150 and we’re helping out with amateur radio controls. I have a primo control point on the Mohawk/Gay Road so I’ll be able to get a good look at the teams as they go through. It’s going to be a late night, though, the last team isn’t scheduled to go through my checkpoint until 12:30AM!

Here’s me in my cold weather gear about to head out for a run in 6 degree weather.

Add sunglasses to that outfit and I’m completely incognito! A good thing, because most people who saw me out running probably thought I was completely nuts.

Anyhoo, it might have been pretty frigid outside, but I ended up being a little too warm in all my layers. Thermal capris, thermal tights, thermal running pants, thermal turtleneck, thermal long sleeve shirt, wind jacket, and thermal ski gloves turned out to be too many thermals.  One mile into my run, I was trying to figure out what layers I could shed but I didn’t dare stop to take anything off so I suffered in my sweaty gear.  The worst part was that my mask got soaked from all my heavy breathing and wearing a wet mask is just so gross. Oh, and the inside layer of my hat was soaked, but the outside layer was covered in ice. That was pretty neat.

I debated all morning whether to go or not, and I was glad I finally decided to head out. Despite being cold (have I mentioned that it was cold?), it was also really sunny with gorgeous blue skies and no wind. I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen the sun, so I was able to get a nice dose of vitamin D and I felt really good when I got home.

I’m closing in on a month back to running now, and I’m feeling pretty good.  My shins are doing okay. I don’t have any pain, but I do have a very low grade discomfort in my posterior tendon area which seems to be well managed by Ibuprofen, stretching, rolling and massage.  I’ve been also doing exercises to strengthen my arches and my tibialis posterior muscles since I’m thinking I may have some muscle imbalances going on.  Well, that’s what the results of my eternal quest for self-diagnosis tells me today.

I have until the end of this month to noodle around with my running and then I pick up an official training plan for a half marathon in May. If I make it through the end of February without anything flaring up, meaning I can make it through the first month of training, I think I’ll be okay. Fingers crossed.