Dammit.

Alright, so it was go time today. It was a fresh week and, while I'm still fighting back a few sniffles and general malaise, I was ready for a decent 3ish mile run/walk session to get me into the swing of things. I didn't expect anything special from today and it was going to be a very easy run.

The Weather Network is not usually known for its accurate forecasts, so it was my fault for planning an outdoor run today. Friday's forecast for Sunday: 25C, sunny. Saturday's forecast for Sunday: 22C, partly cloudy. Saturday night's forecast for Sunday: 20C, cloudy with showers. In the end, it was generally overcast and hovering around 17C. Kind of perfect for running, if it wasn't for the 40kt winds gusting through. I work at the airport, so it's not like I'm in a nice sheltered area with lots of protection via buildings. It also felt like a day in October. Kind of nice, but reminded me that I have to go back to school and have yet to figure out Carleton's WebCT and how to watch my classes on demand. Anyway, back to the point of this paragraph: it was a treadmill run.

I started off the run at 4.0 mph. It was FREEZING in the building. My work always blasts its a/c way too high, but it felt even colder knowing that outside was about the same (if not warmer) than my work. Seriously, I do not want to see their hydro bill. It was so cold that I "warmed up" for half a mile. It took me that long to even just feel like it was room temperature. I had originally planned to do a very easy 4.0-4.5-5.0-5.5-6.0 interval set, but when I hit 4.5, my peroneal started hurting a LOT on my right foot. I increased the speed hoping it was just the awkwardness of that half walk/half jog pace. It eased up a little bit, so I decided to ditch the original plan for a 5.0-6.0 set with a 0.1 mph increase every 0.1 mi (the usual). I made it to the top, and halfway down before I had to give up. My tendon was really pissed off at me.

I'm absolutely gutted about this. I was forced to take a week off from running because of a cold, so I was hoping the tendon would settle down with some rest. It's super tender to touch right now and I'm really worried that I won't make my mileage this week. I can't have injuries bothering me already... it's only been 6 weeks since I started my training plan! Luckily (or not so luckily), it's an existing injury so I'm hoping that once I get back to my weekly treatments and take the exercises for it a bit more seriously, things will start to feel better. This has me really worried for my 5K, though. I was planning to run a 3K this weekend (choice between 3 or 8 km, and given that I haven't run for a week and my tendon is killing after a km, I'm choosing 3), but I think I might have to ditch that idea.

After mulling the idea for a few minutes, I took off my shoes and tried "barefoot running" on the treadmill for 0.1 miles. Now, granted, I "ran" at 4.2 mph. It is very different to running with shoes, and my feet felt heavy and clumsy slamming down unprotected on the treadmill, but I am officially intrigued. My tendon didn't feel as sore when I was running with my bare feet. I might consider a pair of minimalist shoes. Definitely not something I'm going to attempt for long/hard runs at the moment, but people have been singing its praises all over the place. We'll see. I'm due to get my orthotics this week (supposed to be last week, but I was sick and didn't make it to the appt), so I'm hoping that they help a little bit, but who knows. This could get interesting...

I'll see how the tendon feels on tomorrow's run. If it's still really bugging me, I might just have to make this week a cross-training week and work on building up some strength. I will complete the 14 mpw soon, I promise!!

As it is now... 2.6 down, 11.5 to go.

*Sniff*

Knew it was going to be an easy week, but didn't expect to be this sick this soon after first symptoms (last night at around 1 am).

So, it's an off week for me. Boo. Update when I'm better.

Blowin' in the Wind

I had picked my boyfriend up from the airport yesterday and was just in some sort of weird funk. I think he could sense the bitchiness coming on, so he was more than willing to crash in bed while I went out for a quick 3 miler. I decided to do a neighbourhood run since nothing outside of Barrhaven (Woodroffe/Fallowfield/Prince of Wales) is 3 miles. I could've potentially done a Fallowfield and Merivale out and back, but it was rush hour and I didn't feel like having a large audience.

I started out at a slow jog, which I think was a big mistake. Usually I walk for a bit before starting the jog/run, but I knew I was crunched on time. My left Achilles tendon was a bit tender and the peroneal was sort of sore as well. I carried through at a slow pace but things definitely felt like they were unraveling a bit. By the end of the run (which ended up being 3.6 miles due to a slight detour), my left knee was giving me trouble too. I'm hoping the aggravation had to do with the fact that a major portion of the run involved going on oscillating sidewalks.. up, down, up, down. I generally run flat or gradual uphill/downhill, not pavements. The wind was also ridiculously strong (gusting to 30 kts) and it felt like an uphill the entire time! I guess people don't get fit from running flat courses constantly, though. It was tough to come to terms with.

I took an ice bath when I got home which seemed to help the initial pain, but a day later, things are definitely sore. I wish my massage therapist was in to do some tendon work but she's on vacation in Vancouver until the end of the week. Sigh.

I went to the Running Room tonight and stocked up (finally) on a pair of new split shorts, a hydration belt, some new socks and an Achilles support, as well as an IT band support. I'm guessing that the knee pain was IT band related, so I'll see if any of this stuff helps. I've decided to finish my mileage for the week, and then do a week of cross-training only. I remember Stew Smith's plans involved a cross-training week about 4-5 weeks into a program as that's the time people get injured the most and I think I've hit that week. I may even just finish the rest of the week cross-training if nothing feels better and restart the 14 mpw goal in 2 weeks.

As an aside, I finally got my surgery date: September 29. It's a lot sooner than I was planning, but I guess it's better to get rid of the pain while I can. I'm going to try to hit a comfortable 15 mpw by the time I go into surgery. I reckon I'll have about 2-3 weeks recovery time, so the goal is to start back out at 10 mpw, increase by 2 mpw for 3 weeks (to 16 mpw) then continue on the original plan. Of course, all this is very up in the air, but that's the plan for now.

We'll see how tomorrow's run goes. Aiming for a short 2.5 mi run on the treadmill to not stress the tendons too much, but I do want to test out this new "hardware".

Update soon! x

Lucky Number Thirteen

I was really pleased to have completed my mileage for the week last night. I was working some overtime at work and called it quits around 7:30. I decided to measure the path that my coworker E and I run pretty often. I'd only done it two or three times and most of the time, I run with another coworker W -- an older guy with bad knees. I didn't really have the stamina to keep up with E or D (other coworker that also runs, but is pretty intense) and I couldn't finish the full out and back. They said it was 5K, but I measured it last night and it was just over 4 miles, so it's closer to 6K.

I brought my waterbottle along for the ride last night but am getting really sick of holding onto it when I run, so at about mile 2, I tucked it behind a fencepost and finished the route along to the traffic lights at the end of the path, and then came back and picked it up. It actually worked out well. Without the swish swish swish of the waterbottle, the run was very serene. It was a cloudy night so any sort of twilight was essentially blocked out. The path is really straight but runs parallel to a main road that is now very well-lit, so I picked out shadows from the lights and said "I'll run to this shadow". When I got to one shadow, I said "okay, I'll run to that fencepost". It made the run go by so much faster and I was chilled out by the end. Although, that last km is brutal. The entrance to my work involves going up a hill and it definitely deserves the nickname Heartbreak Hill. I just focused on putting one foot in front of the other and I made it up. I've definitely decided to invest in a hydration belt ASAP.

All in all, I added the 4 miles from last night to my weekly total and I'm now on my 14 mpw week! Awesome!

I was planning to run tonight but the eating schedule got a bit messed up and I'm not up to running at 10:30 pm when tomorrow will be a busy day. Hopefully the weather works out and the boyfriend can make it up. We have a family dinner at 5 pm, but maybe can squeeze 3 or 4 miles in around 9ish. I'm definitely starting to notice the mileage now. It's starting to involve a lot more planning and I've essentially ditched cross-training, which is not a good thing! I'm thinking of designating at least one day a week to dedicate to x-training. It's an extra day of workouts but even if it's just easy 30 min on the elliptical, I'm gonna need something. My tendons are starting to hurt again and I just can't risk getting injured again. I've decided that once I hit 20 mpw that I'll only increase my mileage by 1 mile every 2 weeks.

I'm glad the mileage and watching what I eat has paid off though. I woke up at 164.2 lbs this morning, which is the lightest I've been since I had the norovirus in February! And that involved throwing up for 5 days straight! I'm glad some results are finally showing, especially since my diet hasn't been tweaked too much, but I guess it was enough for my body to notice. That means only 14.2 lbs to go 'til my April goal weight. Very reachable.

Toodles!

'Til I Collapse

Today I had what I can only describe as the first second weekly personal training appointment. I usually go to a private fitness facility once a week to do personal training and get really hardcore and awesome workouts. I can only liken them to Crossfit, but with that one-on-one attention that really pushes you to the edge. I've upped the intensity for the next month as I'm going to a wedding in New Jersey with my boyfriend and have two wardrobe changes -- one dress exhibits my ridiculous long legs, and the other shows off my arms. While both are fine-ish (legs are good), I really want to get into tip-top shape before winter hits and I have to cover up.

I had a killer workout with my trainer and was feeling pretty tired, but decided to go for my run tonight so I could make tomorrow a rest day. Boy, was that a good decision. I got on the treadmill as it's relatively humid out and I just didn't have the energy to make it through a hot, humid 2.something mile run. My goal was 3ish miles, but I eventually settled on a goal of 2.3 miles since I wanted to leave 5 miles for my long run on Saturday. I guess going to bed too late and being lethargic all day wreaked havoc on my thinking because I only realized after the run that 6.7+2.3 = 9, sooooo I guess it's a 4 miler for me on Saturday. I don't really mind. I'm not at the point where I'm doing 5-7 miles all week then some crazy 12-13 miler on weekends yet. The different between my long run and short run is less than a mile at this point, so whatever. As long as I get my mileage in. I was hoping to do my 5 mile trail run (which is only actually comprised of maybe 1.5 miles of trail -- the rest is on flat boring roads), so I might try to map the mileage if I just did an out and back on the trail instead of a loop and get the 4 miles in that way.

The run itself was fairly painful. I literally could feel my legs going "f--- this shit, we're out". 6.0mph is my normal jogging pace and I was panting my way through a few intervals with that as my "fast" pace. It was brutal, but I did stay in the 5-6.5 mph range for the full 2.3 miles, so it wasn't too bad, but I'm glad I'm affording myself that day of rest tomorrow. My muscles will thank me.

For some reason, during the run, I got super hungry. This happens fairly often as I usually wait too long after lunch to run and end up with a grumbling stomach, but tonight I ran at 5 pm, so I'm not sure of the deal with that. I think it had to do with just being excessively tired, physically. Tonight is Boston Pizza night and I've been debating between the Spicy Garlic Chicken Pizza and the new Mexicali Pizza. They're both the low-cal individual ones, but the Mexicali is thin crust and bigger, while the garlic chicken is thicker, but smaller. I'm also allowing myself to share a dessert with my mom tonight. It's exactly one month to the wedding and I've decided to give up store-bought desserts for the next 30 days, so I may as well go out on a high note. I would give up desserts altogether, but that would mean going through both my dad's and mom's birthdays without cake. Not cool! Instead, my boyfriend and I are going to be doing some healthy baking. I have some good low cal/fat recipes for cakes and icing and he loves my 100-calorie brownies, so I think I'll survive. Even if someone does buy a cake, at the very least I can portion something equivalent to 100 calories so I know what I'm taking in. It's those Moxie's/BP/etc desserts that are bad! Those, and the random muffins I keep eating at work that are just not helping my case!

I'm also in dire need of new workout clothes. I have two pairs of shorts that I really like to run in -- one pair I've had for a minimum of 3 years now. The second pair I must've got 2 years ago and I love because they showcase my legs VERY well, and I really like my legs. They're that type that sort of moves with your legs as you run. I'm going to try to find a picture of them. They're harder to find now because they made a lot of women uncomfortable. Understandably. If you're not 6'0" tall with mile-long legs, they probably wouldn't look all that great. I'm not bragging... I'm literally all leg, which means that my torso is short and stubby and doesn't lose weight very easily. I was running tonight in these Nike shorts that totally bunched up at the front and were not flattering at all. Couple that with my usual grey (or blue) "Just Do It" tshirt and high temps and I was just feeling disgusting at the end of the run. You would've thought I took a stroll under Niagara Falls. I'm thinking of going to lululemon. While I'm not big on the overpriced hippy stuff, I do remember buying one of my very first workout shirts there when I was 13 and they were just some tiny store in Westboro, and it was a really great shirt that lasted for years. I also heard they have some good bras as well for women of my, er, endowment, so I might pay a visit this weekend.

I'd ordered "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall on Chapters.com and it just arrived today. I'm really excited. I'm hoping to read some of it before I have to start uni! I generally don't like reading "for fun" when I'm studying, since I don't really consider reading a fun activity, and it's certainly not fun to take a break from reading law material to reading another book (even if the content is less intense). The book is actually about a tribe in Africa and has a decent story and documentary feel to it, rather than just some biomechanics book. I'll let you all know how it is.

Anne

Daily Digest

I finally managed to get a run in today after some afternoon delay. As I wait for my gallbladder to be taken out, I'm often treated to some gut-wrenching (pardon the pun) stomachaches. Unfortunately today's hit me pretty hard in the early evening and, after a visit to my potential future workplace, I finally hit the treadmill at 9:40 pm.

My boyfriend and I like to do things together when we're separated, so I had promised him to run with him after work today as I'm trying to get him on the fitness bandwagon (and more importantly - the running bandwagon). I felt bad that I had to bail, so told him to go as far as he could and whatever he did, I would double it. Well of course, tonight was the night that he decided he was going to blow past any sort of PR on the treadmill, and fit in 2.28 miles. Amazing for him, dreadful for me. I don't mind doing a 4.6 mile run and now that I'm making gains in my endurance, I need at least a 4 mile run to feel like I've even worked out, but when I stepped on the treadmill, I was just not feeling tonight's run. I knew I had to do it though. My 3-day total of the week was all of 2 miles and there's no way I was going to hit my 13 mile goal this week (in a healthy injury-free way) without running tonight.

I hate doing anything more than 4 miles on the treadmill, but a lot of good-ish shows are on TV at 10 pm or later, so I actually was fairly entertained for the whole run. In total, I ran 4.7 miles (which included a 0.3 mi warmup and 0.2 mi cooldown). I'm debating now if I should keep warm ups and cooldowns separate from my runs. My time for 4.7 miles wasn't all that stellar (just shy of 50:00), but I also was walking at 4.0 mph for 0.5 of that whole run. So really, it was a 4.2 mile run and a 0.5 mile walk. I may have to throw that question up on the Runner's World forums. Add up a few 0.5 mile walks in a week, and I may only be doing 10 or 11 mpw as opposed to 13. Not a huge deal, but if a training plan is geared to a certain mileage, I want to make sure I'm not biting off more than I can chew. This is especially the case if the plan is for speed, though I guess I only have gains to make if I'm doing a 2:00 half marathon and that includes walking time!

Thoughts from tonight's run:

• Why are all the judges on America's Got Talent not American? Just saying.
• Need to cut toenails -- forgot how much it sucks when your nail is a little too long for the shoe on a long run.
• Hoping my orthotics fix the wonkiness in my feet. I started getting pain in my right foot, on the left side, between the ball and the arch, shooting a little into the toe. I hope this doesn't have to do with the supposed fracture I have that no one seems to be contacting me about.

Sweet! 6.7 miles down, 6.3 to go!

Going, Going, Gone

I am a major control freak. My boyfriend will 100% attest to this fact. I literally have spreadsheets upon spreadsheets for very mundane activities. For my running routes, I have columns for different mileages, followed by course description and a mappedometer.com running route link so that I can actually view my course.

I'm really stoked about training, though sometimes I think I let that controller part of me take over and I end up over-controlling my life, including my runs. I panic about what to eat for dinner, or when to eat dinner, or when to run, what route to run, how many miles to run, will tonight's run conflict with another run, should I do sprints/easy/long/hills... this just goes on forever. It seems that whenever I get focused on something, I get too focused and it screws me up.

Case in point: tonight. Today seemed like a pretty chill day. I had no evening activities planned except for a 4:00 pm personal training session (which kicked my upper body's ass, awesome). I was debating on a bunch of things in my head... do I do dinner at home? Do I go out? Should I run right after the session at 5:00ish or wait til my preferred time of 7:30-8:00ish? But then it's too late to have dinner after... so many things to debate! I actually ended up coming home and going for a "quick nap" that lasted until 7:30 pm (oops). I hadn't eaten or ran yet. I went out for dinner and, due to letting my stomach/intestines work their magic, I didn't get my run in until 10:30 pm. Because it was so late and I had only eaten about 2ish hours beforehand (I generally run 3-5 hours after eating), I only pumped out an easy 2 miler, when I'd planned for a good 4-5 miles at least.

On the bright side, it's a dent in my mileage for the week. I'm getting to the point now where I think I'm running more than I did before I started tracking mileage... it's becoming more of a challenge to figure out when to run. I know, I'm at some really low number, but I'm still a bit confused as to how to do my runs. The mileage is so low that I can't really say I'm doing my "long" run because really, the long run is only a mile longer than the normal runs. I don't want to overtrain, yet doing a few three milers a week is pretty much no strain on my body whatsoever. I think my mind is just panicking... it's like "wait, I don't run this much!"... I do need to fit in at least one day of x-training, though.

Argh, it's all so much to plan! A wise person once said that training is just "miles, miles, miles. Training for a marathon means you run so much, it borders on compulsion". Maybe I just need to get out there and run and not even think about it. That is the best type of running after all.

Anne