Mileage Reporting 18th Week 2013

Ran 4.4 miles this evening. Did one lap around the park on the rough asphalt (1.2 miles) and then on to the concrete bike trail where I ran an out and back 3.2 mile loop. Tried to run my usual pace for most of the run and a couple sections ran a bit faster by experimenting with lifting my legs slightly higher while running. Checked my time again to see if my pace was anywhere near the 7:44 sec I thought I had on Tuesdays run. Guess what? You guessed it. Not even close. My time on todays run was 36 min 16 sec and with 4.4 miles worked out to be 8:14 m/m. Yep now I feel like an A$$. Either the mileage program I use to calulate my runs cannot calculate alot of arcs accurately or with the phone calls on Tuesday I maybe didn't start my stop watch after a call then took another call and after hanging up restarted it after running some distance with the clock stopped. Anyway my lessens learned here is: Don't report your time, as an error may make you feel like an A$$. :barefoot: If it seems too good to be true... it probably is! :)
 
Thursday afternoon
6.93 mi / 11.15 km
44 F
36 F windchill

Started out with a hill nearby. It's very steep. I went up and down that a bunch of times. Then I ran a half mile over to the flight of stairs leading up to the Lutheran Seminary and ran up and down its 35 steps a dozen times or so, until my quads felt like warm butter. Then I ran a half block over to the hill I've been doing my hill work on the last several weeks and ran up and down that and up and down another hill that runs perpendicular to it. A sort of 'L' hills run. Did that a half handful of times.

After about three and half or four miles of hills and stairs, I'd had enough, and decided to finish with an easy aerobic run, passing through the neighborhood, the UofM's St. Paul campus, a bit of the Fairgrounds, and then ending at my daughter's school. A neighbor there offered us a ride home, and we took it. I was pretty tired by then, and my soles were still feeling the abrasion from Tuesday's tempo run on the sandy gravel track.

Overall, a very satisfying run. Felt like a real workout.

We never got the snow or rain forecast for us. It passed south and east of us.

Laura, you've made a pretty big jump in mileage lately, right? Seems to me one month you were running eight miles, and the next 15. I can understand your commitment to running the upcoming half, but I personally wouldn't do anything to anger the ITBS beast. It can take a long time to pacify him once he's been aroused. Just my two cents. Obviously, your husband knows you and running a lot better than I do.
 
wednesday: 2 mile walk, nice park, followed by ~35 min swim
thursday: 40 min elliptical, a little st, 1 hr swim lesson (breast stroke is still not so nice, but flip turns were lookin good)

foot still black and blue on top, feels better some times, worse others. gave up on the thick stiff chaco sandals (achilles and shins were starting to kill me), and am having better luck with flat minimal sandals and an elastic brace around the forefoot to stop swellign during the day. Blech.
 
Ran 4km barefoot on the beach this morning, and then walked out on a breakwater and watched a pod of dolphins playing in the water, jumping in the air and flying out of the faces of the waves for fun. Awesome creatures. Great way to finish an enjoyable holiday.

Then I flew home and had a quick surf at my local beach - the water is positively frigid compared to the balmy northern waters. Wetsuits are not optional down here.
DOLPHINS
how cool is that?!
 
Laura, seems to me you've made a pretty big jump in mileage lately, right? Seems to me one month you were running eight miles, and the next 15. I can understand your commitment to running the upcoming half, but I personally wouldn't do anything to anger the ITBS beast. It can take a long time to pacify him once he's been aroused. Just my two cents. Obviously, your husband knows you and running a lot better than I do.
I appreciate everyone's encouragement and input. He certainly doesn't want me to hurt myself. I did try to stick to the 10% rule, but it may not have been as gradual as my body needs. I decided to not try again today, but maybe Saturday. At least it doesn't hurt when I walk and garden. :)
 
I ran 6.5 on Tuesday. It was a great run, no problems. Then yesterday, I woke up and something was strained on the upper side/front of my hips. I did have to abruptly pull an adult, abruptly up, out of the water Monday evening - when I was not standing close enough to them to use my leg muscles for my primary leverage, and my torso was leaning pretty far out. So it's totally possible something got tweaked from doing that. Also, I went on a 5 mile hike on Saturday, followed by a 5 mile run the following day, and a 6.5 on Tuesday, during which I tried to actually run up all the steepest inclines on my run (which I usually walk), so...did not do my run today. May, or may not be able to do it tomorrow, I'll see how I feel, and if I do, it won't be a long one. Just been taking it easy, rolling it, having Brine Shrimp massage it (muah-ha-haaa) and taking extra herbs for the inflammation. I managed to resist doing any swimming exercises today. I don't want to be like the (unfortunately reasonably high number of) people I know who don't respect the wishes of their bodies.
 
wednesday: 2 mile walk, nice park, followed by ~35 min swim
thursday: 40 min elliptical, a little st, 1 hr swim lesson (breast stroke is still not so nice, but flip turns were lookin good)

foot still black and blue on top, feels better some times, worse others. gave up on the thick stiff chaco sandals (achilles and shins were starting to kill me), and am having better luck with flat minimal sandals and an elastic brace around the forefoot to stop swellign during the day. Blech.
That's the pool divider bruise now? We have so much fun hurting ourselves.... :eek:
 
. going to have to carry water this summer for trail runs for me and the dog. be nice to see if it does anything to cool me off and lower the HR.

You should "hide" water along the trail. I've started doing that -for myself- not my imaginary dog. ;)
 
30.2 miles on the bike.

After I got home, I threw on a quick shower and headed out to catch "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me" at the theater only to find that it was sold out. Wow - did not know that there were that many WWDTM fans in the area...
 
Actually, I find that I have more trouble when I run slowly. Kind of weird, maybe. But, for example, I ran the last mile and a half about 20 seconds per mile faster and that felt better. It's just hard to keep it up for that distance! Plus, I was under orders not to push it if it was doing this. For the first time since I started running barefoot, it feels like my iliotibial band. :mad: My husband thinks my system is just stressed to it's limit right now. He says he's been at a point like this many times in his running career... since he is still being sympathetic while his arm is in a sling and quite painful from surgery on his rotator cuff a week ago, I can't complain too much. He does understand the potential disappointment.
Edit: the half is May 18th
Well, I know you've read about it, but let me just repeat what worked for my ITB issue in case it helps.

[1] I found, like you, that faster paces help, and that slower paces tend to provoke it more.

[2] If you find you can't sustain the faster paces over the distance you want to run, then try either the run-walk-run method, or what I ended up doing, the run-stretch-run method. Even now, although I haven't heard the roar of the ITBS ogre for many months, I still stop for a quick stretch the minute I feel the least bit of strain. (Jen, avert your eyes, the following images have been rated 'B' for Bozo, and may not be appropriate for viewing by a post-Bozo audience.)

I do the ITB stretch,

a hammie/calf stretch (I like to put my leg up higher than this guy, and grab my toes/forefoot to stretch out the calves well too)

, a quad/shin stretch

, and sometimes I also get down on the ground and do a piriformis stretch

. (Notice the gals are barefoot but the dude has his heels on.)

The stretches don't take that long to do, give you a bit of a breather, and really rejuvenate the legs. If you're running faster paces, your overall pace won't be too bad even with the stops to stretch.

[3] I'm also pretty sure that emphasizing deadlifts, squats, and mobility stuff more in my strength training sessions has helped.

[4] Make sure to roll your ITB good when you're not running, and do the ITB stretch every few hours too, in the course of your everyday activities. I also like to massage the length of the band and really dig my fingers in.

[5] I've found any bump up in distance tends to lead to greater tightness in my calf muscles and iliotibial bands. Right now I seem good up to about nine miles, but I know when I start to push over 10 miles, I'll probably have to stop and stretch more until my legs adapt to the greater distance.

[6] Stop running when you begin to feel fatigued or feel some strain. This is hard, I know. We're supposed to push on through that, right? Well, don't. I don't run fatigued anymore. I run a comfortable distance and when it starts to feel really comfortable I then bump up the distance a bit and stay there for however long it takes for the new distance to become comfortable. No 10% rule for me. I'm especially wary of strain/fatigue if I haven't run for more than a few days. Then, instead of going right back to my max distance, I like to do one or two shorter preparatory runs first to make sure everything's good and loose. And I think micro runs on your off days help keep the legs loose too.

[7] Unfortunately, I think age is a factor in all this. That took me a long time to accept. But with a little patience, the same goals can be achieved, it just takes a little longer to get there than it would've when we were 10-20 years younger. I would definitely bail on the half if there's a chance that it will lead to a set-back in your overall progress, which has been great, in my opinion.

Please excuse any presumptuousness. You probably know all this, but even so, it's sometimes good to be reminded. It was also a good exercise for me to summarize my experience over the last nine months. Thanks for indulging me.

Tomorrow I will get a run in before my mri.
Good luck with the MRI today Nick!
Tomorrow is rest day before IBRD (unfortunately running on my own)
I'm in the same boat. Apparently the Minnesota Chapter is defunct, now that Christian has to work for a living. Oh well, I've always been a solitary runner anyway.
 
YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!
I was told yesterday that I could start running now--:happy: :happy: :happy:
But, to go ONLY for two miles :meh: it's a start and is better than nothing-me thinks.
I am not 100% yet and I'll never be but is waaaaay better than it was two weeks ago. There still pain in the hip joint and groin but not nearly as bad:inpain:.

@Laura, it does sound as if there is a knot deep into your calf muscle that is causing you grief.
Deeply massage the hell out of it into it breaks up. It is my hope that it will go away before race day.
 
You are getting to be quite an expert on advice giving which is pretty good btw.
Other exercises I found to be good for the are the Clam shell, hip hike and the pigeon pose stretch.

Just following your lead!
I like those exercises too, but don't do them when I'm out on a run. I just keep it to those four. When I'm at home, I do the hip hike and pigeon pose stretch (the latter is a half stretch as I'm still nervous about putting too much lateral stress on my MCL). I'd kinda forgotten about the Clam Shell, I'll try that again and see if I like it. I kind of get the same effect from doing the (partial) splits.
 
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It's been low mileage week for me, tapering for a half tomorrow. I've never tapered this much, hope it was wise. But with the last 2 races really wearing through my skin, I leaned towards the 'less is more' thought. I started my taper after my long run the weekend before last (12mi). I would feel better had I got to or surpassed the 13 mi mark this year, but not much I can do about that now. Three more 5-6mi runs last week, this week was 4 on Monday, and finally an easy 3 on Wednesday. Also have been walking 30 min each day at work. A couple of the runs during the taper were with my unshoes, to further help the skin from wear prior to race and allow me to run the trail.

I'm feeling good about it, and been eating healthy lately. And despite the 10 lbs I gained over winter I'm back down plus an extra couple, lightest I've been since college. Weather is finally looking nice! Every race so far this year has been in the 30's or less... Overnight low tonight is suppose to be mid 50's!

Only negative (besides barely getting to 12mi) is that I haven't been sleeping well this week. It's also been my on call week (once every 5 weeks) were I have to be in earlier at 6 am (get up 4). And oddly I've been having trouble sleeping, I've woken by 3am every day this week and not been able to fall back asleep. I'm sure that's going to have an impact on my performance.
 
Well, I know you've read about it, but let me just repeat what worked for my ITB issue in case it helps.

. (Notice the gals are barefoot but the dude has his heels on.)

Unfortunately, I think age is a factor in all this.

I'm in the same boat. Apparently the Minnesota Chapter is defunct, now that Christian has to work for a living. Oh well, I've always been a solitary runner anyway.

Thanks. Really. It is all useful. Yeah, my husband mentioned the "age" word yesterday. But then he goes on and says nice things like I'm in the best shape of my life and it's sexy. Mixed messages? :p And then, I do have to laugh at myself that I'm disappointed that I can "only" run 8 miles. That's a new "low." ha. :happy:

Poor men, there seems to be more social pressure to wear shoes.

I thought my IBRD turn out was small, but it sounds like if it's over 5, it's a crowd! Of course, I can reach that count just by involving a couple kids and friends. Not fair, probably.
 
That's the pool divider bruise now? We have so much fun hurting ourselves.... :eek:
Actually not sure, since the bruise from my sharp pointy computer was two small dots above metatarsals 3&4, and the pool divider is more spread out over metatarsals 4&5.
It feels a lot better today, but still gets more black and blue right after a swim, even though it doesn't hurt anymore (and my legs and feet actually feel better for swimming, even the hurt one, as long as I only kick off the wall with the good foot and I'm not whackign the bad foot against anything. :rolleyes:
Life is an adventure.
Better to hurt myself having the kind of adventures I like. Just wish my adventures involved a bit more grace on my part.
:D
 
oh, hour of swim this morning. but with lots of little breaks though to switch stuff up and deal with lane sharing. Did some 50s with flip turns, and they weren't bad. The only reason I don't do more flip turns now is b/c the water gets up my nose on the upside of the flips, yet I hate nose clips for regular swimming, so I ditch them after a lap or two.
Got across a few times pretty decently I think in butterfly, but I cheated and used flippers to give me extra kick power while I focus on getting my upper body corrected.
 
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