Week 10 of 13: 20 miles in 3:33

The peak of training arrived, a week later than it should've!

I initially planned to run 20 in a flat area, but couldn't seem to find a decent route or stretch of road with shoulders.  Since I was running alone, I needed to be safe.  Running on roads without shoulders is just a bad idea.  There are a lot of local parks where I can run, but they are typically 1-3 miles in total.  Doing almost 7 loops of the same route becomes painful while running.

I decided to stick with my 20 mile route from last year.  I would run 10 miles to the football stadium of the local university, and run back.  An out and back loop doesn't sound too bad, right?  Until you factor in that one loop is the equivalent of the Broad Street Run.  Which I PR'd in this year in 1:30.  All I knew was that this run wouldn't be done in 3 hours, it was also a slower paced long run.

I packed my shot bloks, camelbak, covered myself in body glide and was out the door.  I also had to go to kmart before my run to buy new earbuds, since my other pair broke.  There was no way I could run 20 miles without music.  I started out too fast (for this run).  I was at an 8:45-9 pace for the first few miles and knew I needed to slow down.  So I slowed closer to a 10 minute pace.

Throughout the run I felt like I was running at a 15 minute pace, but every time I'd look down my watch was between 10-10:15.  This was a good feeling, even though I was hurting.

I stopped 4 or 5 times during the run to stretch out my glutes, hips, and low back.  It felt like everything was knotted together.  I've had IT band issues and a herniated disc, so I was a little concerned.

I finally made it back 3:33 and tons of hills later in one piece.  I showered, took advil, and then went and got this amazing burrito.  I try to avoid this place if I'm not training, but after 20 miles this was amazingggg!

Today, I woke up and felt ok.  Until I got to work, I knew something was wrong with my back.  I called my chiropractor and made an appointment to see her after work.  They use these little buzzy pads to stimulate muscle contractions on your back.  I was ok before I got this part.  When I got up to walk to her office I could barely move (very reminiscent of when I herniated my disc).  

So I am back in rest mode icing and eating advil all day.  I just hope I can make it to this marathon in one piece.  Fingers crossed and saying prayers.

Only 3 weeks to Philly Marathon! eek

Week 9 of 13: Rest

This week I should've run 20 miles, but opted not to because of my foot pain.  I'm 100% stubborn when it comes to sports related injuries and pain.  But I also know the last few times this has happened, my lack of rest has made me so much worse.  I can't stay away from exercise for another 2-4 months again.  I become a crazy woman without it!

I steered clear of running most of the week and just did my yoga and strength workouts for the week.  By Wednesday I was starting to feel ok and went for an interval run, which I completed sans pain! Yay :)!  I then ran again on Friday and Saturday.  My total mileage for this week was around 20 miles, throughout the week instead of one 20 mile run.

I was hoping my increase in rest, (again) would lend itself to a decent week of running.

I then started looking ahead to my 20 miler the next week.

Week 8 of 13: 17.5 miles and a Duathlon

So after a week where I think I rested, I decided to go crazy and do a long run and a duathlon.

Yes, this makes sense.  I pushed off the 18 mile run from Sunday to Friday, then didn't want to miss the duathlon.

I was supposed to run 18 miles, but managed to get 17.5 in.  I think I ran it in 3:15ish (I should probably check out my garmin).  After the weekends of bike events and being sick I was happy just to complete 17.5 having not run in 3 weeks since the half marathon, where I was in fact really sick.

My issue with this run was my feet.  I broke my sesamoids years ago and also had turf toe aka everything hurt and I couldn't walk.  I was eating Advil like candy.  Anyway, anytime I get foot pain I immediately send myself to the broken sesamoids and taking 2 months off of running.  I don't want to go back to that!

That day I came back and rested, ate, and headed back to my friends in Dover.  Why, you ask?  Because I was doing my FIRST duathlon the next day.  And while this may sound crazy, it was only $15.  $15 for a race of any kind is a steal, so if it took me 5 hours it was still worth it.

The duathlon consisted of a 5k, 10 mile bike, and a 5k.  Now, typically for duathlons and triathlons you train and do brick workouts, which are two sports back to back.  Once or two within the past 4 months I've run then biked, or biked then run.  But, that was only twice.  Given that I ran 17.5 less than 24 hours before I didn't know how I'd feel.  I initially thought 1:30 would be feasible, then adjusted as time went on to 1:45.  I ran the first 5k in 29 mins (more than normal, but ok with my long run before), I have no idea what I did the 10 mile bike in or the last 5k.  I did finish in 1:43 though, which I thought was decent considering everything else.

And I got this fun shirt!

After I got home from the duathlon I immediately started googling my issue, that had gotten worse.  I mean, doesn't everybody?  Apparently not, my friends and family always joke I trust google a bit too much.  I have to say google has been good to me.  As a single woman it's helped me fix, repair, and purchase with greater finesse than any opinion I could've asked for!

What I discovered was that I had plantar fasciitis that had started or was flaring up.  This was confirmed by my chiropractor the next day.  All week I took it easy and rolled my foot across frozen water bottles.  Blehh..

Week 7 of 13: Rest?

This is really bad, I have no clue what I did this week.

I worked Friday night into Saturday evening and think I planned to run on Sunday, but don't know or remember if I did in fact run.

After all of these cycling events I was getting worn down, so I think I did take the weekend off to make sure I didn't get sick again.

Mental note: blog weekly to avoid this going forward.

Week 6 of 13: Bike to the Bay

I'm over a month delayed on keeping this up to date.  Here's what I remember from Bike to the Bay.

The week prior to Bike to the Bay I was sick and I was just getting over the funky cold that had taken me down.  I also had an inhaler for my cold induced asthma.  Really asthma?  Every time I get a cold, I get asthma.. WHY?!  I guess I shouldn't complain, I could have asthma everyday.

I left work and headed down to my friends house, since they lived 5 mins from the start, and I live about 45 minutes from it!  I was running late and met them at an awesome italian pizza place.  I had a great dinner with soup and pizza.  We needed to carb up for the next day. :)

When we got back to their house we made sure everything was situated for the ride and pumped all our tires back up.  Apparently the fluctuating temperatures were causing my tires to lose air each week and were required a lot more air before each ride.  And no, they weren't flat.

We got up early, like we do for all these events.  The good thing about this ride was that every 10-12 miles was a rest stop with food, drinks, and potties.  We then went and picked up our race materials and bibs.

So, this is the first Bike to the Bay event I've done and everyone is required to raise $300.  Typically when you do a charity event, you have a month or two past the event to raise all the money.  Well, not Bike to the Bay!  Race morning they would check your total raised amount, and you paid the remainder.  Thankfully I had an awesome group of supporters and my $300+ had been raised beforehand.

The ride itself wasn't too bad, but my chest and asthma pain were thankful for each rest stop.  Just as I would start to hurt, we'd hit a rest stop.

We had planned to bike 100 miles (we'd done it two weeks before and were confident).  Thankfully the group we biked with was only going for 75, and I was more than happy, given I still wasn't 100% recovered.

So, here we are after 75 miles.  Money raised, 75 miles biked.  I think I'll do it again next year, it was a lot of fun! :)