A lovely run…

Easy Run- Distance : 7.20 miles

Time : 1h08min30sec

Average Pace : 9.32/mile Max Pace : 8:08

My throat was scratchy and I was feeling sicky when I went to bed last night, so I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with the evil coldness. Luckily since today is a holiday, Monsieur Fish was home meaning I could sleep in a little and run later in the day. I think the extra sleep did me a world of good, and even though I was feeling really tired I forced myself out the door.

So glad I did, because I had a really great run – felt strong and full of energy (which if you’d seen me this morning would have been surprising!). Took advantage of the daylight to run on a train in the forest and it was just beautiful with all the yellow leaves. Because I’m usually an early-morning runner, I really enjoyed seeing all the hikers and cyclists on their trails, enjoying the afternoon off.

Only downer for the day: because it was a holiday and I slept in, it was impossible for me to do any yoga with Monsieur Fish and Guppy under-foot. Bah.

I have been loving listening to these crafty podcasts during my runs. I only recently discovered them, so I downloaded a bunch of them and they’ve been alot of fun.

No Run Mondays

Strength Training: 45 minutes

Up until about two weeks ago, I was following an excellent running plan from the book
The Daniel’s Running Formula by Dr. Jack Daniels (which I highly recommend). On that programme I was running Monday mornings, about a 6 mile recovery run after my 10 mile Sunday run. While I think the plan was great, I do think that I need to force myself to take at least one day off (which I wasn’t doing much of the summer), so, I’m opting for Mondays. I hope I can stick to it. I think once I get into my marathon training and have more significant Sunday runs of 15+ miles, it’ll be much easier to not run on Mondays.

In other fun news, I began coming down with a cold yesterday afternoon…geeze, maybe running for an hour and a half yesterday through the pounding rain had something to do with that? I hate the humidity here!

Sunday = The Long Run (everything relative)

Long Run Duration: 1h40m28sec Distance: 9.25mi Pace: 10:50/mi average

Time of day: 7:20 a.m. Weather: Torrential rains, strong wind gusts, 9c

Sunday Numbers 40.7 total miles, 3 strength training sessions, 1 yoga session (boo)

I have never run through such pounding rain for so long. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy running in the rain and often joke that “if it ain’t rainin” you ain’t trainin’” (makes me feel cool). This was a downpour like I’ve never seen in the morning, but I had no choice – Monsieur Fish was to be gone to record in Paris by 9am, so I had to get going.

Mile 1 – I had to stop to wring out my beanie & gloves.

Mile 4- Took off gloves because my hands were so cold & puckered I figured they weren’t helping.

Mile 5- For a split second wished I was not running.

Mile 7- realized how unbelievably heavy my camelback was from soaking up all the rain (as it was mostly empty).

This was supposed to be a 10-mile run, but there was a moment where I could turn off the route and come home, and I did, even though I wasn’t at the 10-mile mark. I was done.

I weighed my clothes, you know, just for fun, and they came in at 2.4K. My shoes came in at 1.3K. No wonder it sucked.

I did learn some valuable things from this run, though, like carrying an extra pair of gloves in a plastic bag to change into, and maybe some socks, too.

All in all, a good run making the best of a bad weather day.

Dusting off the training blog…

When I started this little training blog last Spring as a companion to my primary blog Musings From The Fishbowl, I was hoping that it would help me feel a bit more connected to other athletes via my training and also to connect with other Sporty Vegans. After a bit of a hiatus (not from training, but from sport blogging), I’m back with big plans and loads of ambition. I’m all about the Paris Marathon in April 2009!

I’ve been wanting to run a marathon since I began running in September of 2005, but was first held up by an over-training injury (due to my zeal, like so many new runners), and then life just getting in the way, being concerned about not having enough time to properly train, feeling “safer” with the smaller distances of the half-mary, etc. I have decided that enough is enough and I am going for it, and am hoping to use this training blog to help me organize my thoughts and training better.

I have a regular training log at Running Ahead, but cannot figure out how to make it public or to link it to this blog – if anyone has any suggestions on that I would be most thankful!

I’d also like to send out a big merci! to Jen, my favourite tri-athlete and yogini for sharing her groovy icons with me!

“The Ultimate Ab Workout For Runners”

Now isn’t that a catchy title? That’s the title of one of the articles & accompanying ab program found at the Runner’s World website. Like many sporty kids out there I need to remember to change up my ab programme fairly frequently if I want to keep my muscles guessing (and thus, working harder). Ideally, you’re to change your programme every 4 to 6 weeks. I may not be disciplined enough to mark the weeks on my agenda, but I can usually tell when it’s time to make things more difficult – because things start feeling too easy!

I tried this ab routine, which is used by Team Running USA (according to the article, anyway). There was nothing radically new or mind-blowing for me, your usual planks, Turkish get-up, etc., but I think that it was the comprehensiveness of the spread of exercises and the number of sets that got me. I think that ab work sometimes gets a bit sandwiched in between other exercises for me, and I often treat it more like something I have to do, not that I need to do. Don’t get me wrong: I have a snazzy little belly here and I really like working my abs, but the idea of dedicating a longish workout to them has always seemed a bit strange to me because they are already getting a decent workout with the other sports I do. I believe I’ve had more of a philosophy of reinforcement than building up. That’s where this workout is different- it really seems to be doing both, but has a lot of exercises and sets, so it is not a quickie ab workout. I was unable to perform the last two exercises because I do my ab work in my tiny apartment, not in a gym, and even with the exclusion of those two exercises it took me 25 minutes. Now granted, it was the first time I did it so I was a bit fiddly with things and it may take less time next time, though, if I build up the sets and reps, etc., it may take longer.

In other news I got my blood results back today, though I don’t understand them much, really. According to the “norms” column next to my numbers, my lymphocytes are too low, my total cholesterol is too low, and my C-Reactive Protein is too high- whatever that is. I haven’t had a fainting spell since last Thursday, but I am still pretty tired, so just easing back into the training.

The Half-Mary That Never Was…Overtraining?

I think I saw the signs coming from afar, but chose rather to ignore them…

It started with strange sort of ’spells’ where my heart would beat a bit funny, I felt tired, like I needed to lie down…then the last week before my mini-taper started to feel really, really tough. Keeping a sceptical eye on my heart-rate monitor I saw my HRMaxs were going up ever-so-slightly, I was becomming a bit crabby… the athlete’s worst enemy outside of the injury- overtraining!

The week before my half-marathon I began having all-out dizzy spells where I had to get on the floor fast because I was going to faint (this first happened at a Blonde Redhead concert in Paris, luckily we were just behind the sound board and it was in a bit of a pit so I could sit on the edge and not have to leave…). The spells became more and more frequent, and I started having constant stomach pain and feeling like I was going to be sick.

Not fun.

So, despite all the desire in the world, and the hard work, too, I opted out of last Sunday’s half. Actually, my visiting mom sort of talked me out of it, or maybe better yet gave me permission to opt out. I felt horrible, like I didn’t even feel like I could run. I was chilled and had goose flesh and was tired.

The good news is I went for my first run today in a week. Felt great, just a baby run mind you, only 5.5mi, but I figured since I haven’t had a spell since Thursday I could try. My stomach is sill jacked, but it didn’t keep me from running.

I had some blood work done and I’ll get those results back tomorrow evening, so at least I’ll know if it’s anemia. Could also be electrolytes (I have been having these very abnormal cravings for salt).

Hoping to ease back into training this week…

Pool Training! Or trying new things will keep you humble.

I have been spending so much time training that the training blog has been left by to languish, alone on the blogosphere…

No, seriously, I have been doing a lot of running (at least a lot for me, 40-45mi per week), but the real reason is my mum’s visit which has me spending more quality time with her (which is a good thing since I only see her once a year), and less quality time with my computer (which will still be here when she leaves).

As I’d previously mentioned, my first metatarsal joint has been really giving me grief, and so needed to try to have my insoles updated & get insoles for my regular shoes (in hopes that this will help) and it just so happens that my Podiatrist is the president of an athletic club here in town. While we were talking about my foot issue he of course began asking me normal questions like what my activities are and how many miles-per-week I run, etc. and he got so excited and insisted that I come to the pool to try things out.

My first try was a rude wake-up call. I know how to swim, like technically. I even saved the toddler-nephew of a dear friend of mine once when I noticed him sitting on the bottom of the deep end of the pool. But, I sort of forgot that I’m a wee bit freaked out about swimming with my head under water. Ok, not really, it’s more like I don’t like swimming with my head under the water once I start getting my heart rate up and get a little winded. Scared I can’t breathe and breathe in water, and well, I don’t have gills, so I just shouldn’t do that.

Despite my breathing issues, my first pool session went really well and I managed to swim a half a mile (with rests between lengths, obviously). Today was my second pool session, and I totally admit to wondering if I was going to go back…but I totally did and am very proud of myself. I feel like I am starting to “get it” as far as the rhythm goes, but recognize that my technique is pretty much non-existant. It’ll come.

Due to my schedule I can only go to pool sessions on Saturdays, so it’s hard to make any real progress with only one training session per week, but it’s better than nothing!

I also have a new training log – the one I was using was ok, but just had too many hiccups. I need to figure out how to get the new one up here on the blog to share.

Persistence

As often happens, when I start feeling an injury take hold (which luckily for me, isn’t very often) I slip into a mini-state of denial. I begin to feel as if I don’t talk about it, the problem seems farther away, less present somehow. This would explain my lack of updating my training blog since a few weeks back…

I took the above picture on my last long Sunday run on March 23rd. I run by this boulder, and while you can’t really tell from the picture, it is huge. It’s this massive, gigantic thing that is actually banked against the little hill – or maybe it actually created the hill – and the trail runs over it.

Seeing this drop-shaped hole, carved out by drops of rain sliding down the leaves of the great tree next to the boulder, really gives me cause to stop and take stock of what persistence really means. Sometimes you feel like you are getting nowhere, and that all your efforts amount to nothing, or to not much. But then, if you are able to imagine the difference all your hard work and sacrifice could make, do make…well, I imagine that this shallow pool was many, many years in the making, and that to the naked eye in the beginning it seemed rather like nothing at all.

 

So I need to remember that these small set-backs, while they seem terribly frustrating and somewhat devastating to my training, are really nothing in the greater scheme of things. They also help to push me to take control of my training, and not let my training control me.

Sundays = The Long Run

Beautiful sights from Sunday’s run:

I can’t tell you what joy it is to see all the flowers and blossoms bursting through the grey of winter! Such gorgeous scenery! So much more beautiful than cars, sidewalks & smog…

When I first started running I would never, ever have stopped to take pictures of anything. I smugly regarded stopping as a sign of weakness, as many misguided newbies do. Now I just love lugging my point & shoot along with me, even if it is a bit of a pain sometimes. It is so challenging to be still and not shiggle my arms or the camera.

I sometimes feel silly calling Sundays my long run, after all, it is such a subjective adjective! Yesterday was a 12-miler, as per my handy-dandy training plan. For some, 12 miles sounds undoable, for others, a 12-mile day is considered an easy day. Running is so personal.

I was feeling a wee bit tired yesterday. The almost constantly-gray sky and falling rain didn’t help me much, but when I saw this apparition of what looked like cotton candy from afar, it helped me forget the bleak feeling in my feet and my spring bounced back:

I’ve been running through the forest surrounding our city for nearly a year and a half, but have only been venturing on the trails for about two months. Before that I stayed on the more cyclist-friendly tar paths. I felt a bit intimidated running so far into the woods alone, knowing my cell phone wouldn’t work with any reliability and that no one really knew where I was (Mr. Fish always has a vague idea thanks to Map My Run but the trails aren’t always well indicated). On the tar paths I would feel reassured as I would often happen upon hikers, cyclists, and sometimes other runners. Now I am just addicited to the uneven paths and crazy “where-is-my-footing” trails. I am most assuredly humbled as I can feel the added difficulty as my body tries to stabilize. It is slowing me down, but building me up!

The agony of de feet

My feet hurt.

Ok, that’s out of the way…

I have these flat-as-crêpes feet which have taught me through my years of dancing, and now running, to be creative in finding ways to deal with them. I have custom-made orthodics (which to be honest help minimally, but help is help), and I have done a fair amount of research into trigger points and self-massage techniques which means that I pretty much don’t go anywhere without a lacrosse ball to “roll against the wall or floor” or one of those little 35mm bouncy balls to roll under my foot. As a dancer I was lucky to have a great support team to help me deal with my aches and pains: I saw my massage therapist once a week and my chiropractor twice a week. It helped some, but a day didn’t go by that I wasn’t in some form of pain, usually lower back and the feet.

Those days are gone and as a runner I am thrilled to say that I am almost never, ever in pain. Sometimes there is a sore muscle or a tight one, but that’s good. I have learned to head-off many of my old problems with more stretching (specifically yoga), and I eat more and rest better than back in the day. There is much debate about stretching being beneficial or not, and many great studies on the subject, so I’m just speaking from personal experience: nearly every single injury I have ever sustained (with the exception of falling-type injuries) have been born from over-tight muscles pulling on tendons and ligaments which in turn either snapped, became inflamed, pulled something “out” (like my ab muscles vs. my back) or an icky combination of the above. I am extremely flexible, but am very tightly wound.

This is why my feet hurt.

Last October as I approached the 20K race I was to run (was to run because a respiratory infection and strep throat kept me from actually running the race), my feet started to really ache. I am very careful about keeping track of my shoe mileage and rotating my shoes, and was surprised when they were already hurting from the moment I woke up. They felt sort of tired, like they had already been on the run I was waking to go on. I also begin having a problem with my right foot at this time. A nagging soreish pain both on the inside and outside of my first metatarsal joint (big toe). Terrified it was a stress fracture I performed all the self-tests – pinching, prodding- which in the event of a stress fracture would have had me howling in pain or jumping off the chair, and I could safely asses it was not a SFX. I reluctetnly saw my GP, telling her what I thought it was – overly-tight muscles pulling on ligament which is causing the pain, she pretty much agreed. End of story.

After battling the evil infection that kept me from running my race in October I realized with delight that my foot/toe hardly hurt (because over a two-week period I had hardly gotten  out the door for a run!). Flipping through my exercise journal I also noticed that during the month prior to the foot pain exacerbating I had pretty much not done any yoga at all. Humm.

So here’s my dilemma. My toe (well, around the joint) pretty much hurts all the time. I don’t think about it much. If I put the 13K Guppy in the hiking backpack to do our shopping (which I do a lot) I think about it a little. After as little as a 10-minute Sun Salutation session it feels GREAT, as in no symptoms, and then sneaks back a little later. I know it’s muscle-tension related, I think I know which muscles are implicated, but I can’t make permanent progress (without  *not* running).

I also think the perpetual tired feeling in my feet is related. They feel so much better just after a nice yoga practice, even brief.

It may be time for foot ice-baths again for while…