After yesterday's post about how wonderful it is to see how much your body can handle, I had quite the rude awakening. This morning, my morning off, I decided to not set my alarm and wake up naturally because the forecast was predicting a high of 86 for today and (comparably) that's pretty comfy.
I woke up at 8:30 and was out the door running by 9. Everything went well until I actually started running; I hit a brick wall only a few minutes into my run and was never able to regain any comfort.
On the surface, I blame the horrible (and very, very abbreviated: only 1.7 miles) run on my forgetfullness. I usually grab half a banana before a 4-5 mile run and, because I was so worried about sunscreen, eating a snack completely flew out of my mind.
But I think the cause of the suckiness is actually deeper. My eating habits have been terrible lately; either I eat way too much junk or not enough healthy...I have no clue what happened to my happy medium, but I'm guessing the balance disappeared when I had to stop running regularly and I have yet to gain it back since I don't really have a firm running schedule in place yet. Dehydration also takes some of the blame because there is no way I could get cramps as bad as I did just because I forgot to eat half a banana...no way in heck.
So, I learned my lesson. In a runner's world, food and drink are excruciatingly important, especially when the summer weather hits. Things could have been much worse, but thankfully I pushed aside my ego and stopped.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Heat, heat go away. Don't come back another day.
I'm a person that completely loves summer. But when it goes from 60 degrees to 95+ degrees in one day, I am not a happy camper...especially upon discovering that, in fact, our air conditioner is not working (thankfully it's up and running now, knock on wood).
Up until the crazy heat started, my running was going well. I PRed at a pretty difficult 10k that usually kicks by butt and finished strongly in a 7.40 pace. Go me. But yesterday's run, my first in the real summer heat, was brutal.
At 6:45 in the morning, it was already 75 degrees and 82 percent humidity. But I was in the mood for a run so I got dressed and headed out the door, feeling optimistic and still a bit sleepy headed. And while I'm glad I went out for a run, I was completely dragging. My 4 mile run quickly transformed into a 3 mile jog that was difficult for me to just finish. I was sweating like a man, cursing the sun for beating down on me, and wondering I wasn't in bed like any other sane person would be before a long day at work.
When I got back into my non-air conditioned house, it looked as if I had jumped into a pool; that is how sweaty I was. I didn't realize my body could produce that much liquid. But as much as I am complaining about it, and as much as I hated it, runs like that are why I run. Sure, everyone loves a perfect run but it's the runs that make you push yourself that make you realize how amazing the human body is.
Thankfully the temperature should be lowering down to the mid-80s tomorrow and I'm crossing my fingers that tomorrow morning's run won't be quite as blistering. It was, however, nice to see that I could take a little heat (pun intended).
Up until the crazy heat started, my running was going well. I PRed at a pretty difficult 10k that usually kicks by butt and finished strongly in a 7.40 pace. Go me. But yesterday's run, my first in the real summer heat, was brutal.
At 6:45 in the morning, it was already 75 degrees and 82 percent humidity. But I was in the mood for a run so I got dressed and headed out the door, feeling optimistic and still a bit sleepy headed. And while I'm glad I went out for a run, I was completely dragging. My 4 mile run quickly transformed into a 3 mile jog that was difficult for me to just finish. I was sweating like a man, cursing the sun for beating down on me, and wondering I wasn't in bed like any other sane person would be before a long day at work.
When I got back into my non-air conditioned house, it looked as if I had jumped into a pool; that is how sweaty I was. I didn't realize my body could produce that much liquid. But as much as I am complaining about it, and as much as I hated it, runs like that are why I run. Sure, everyone loves a perfect run but it's the runs that make you push yourself that make you realize how amazing the human body is.
Thankfully the temperature should be lowering down to the mid-80s tomorrow and I'm crossing my fingers that tomorrow morning's run won't be quite as blistering. It was, however, nice to see that I could take a little heat (pun intended).
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Figures...
It figures that as soon as I make my blogging "re-debut" I have a grueling and mediocre run.
I was in a complete running mood, feeling very gung-ho towards a route that used to kick my butt and come back for more. So I laced up my shoes, headed out the door, and started off at a fairly decent pace. I practically glided up and down the first hill...it wasn't until the very gradual uphill that I started feeling like my legs were made of lead, which leads me to believe that I am far better at running up steep hills because it is such a mental thing. Long, gradual hills just hurt (in my opinion).
Instead of pushing through a fatigued 4 mile run, I stopped at two with a vow that I'm going to run 4 tomorrow morning. During the middle of a training cycle I probably would have forced myself to keep going, but since I'm just coming off a healing knee, I'd rather stay fairly recreational at this point. I'm feeling antsy to go for a jog now (or "yog" as I playfully like to call it) but I know better.
I was in a complete running mood, feeling very gung-ho towards a route that used to kick my butt and come back for more. So I laced up my shoes, headed out the door, and started off at a fairly decent pace. I practically glided up and down the first hill...it wasn't until the very gradual uphill that I started feeling like my legs were made of lead, which leads me to believe that I am far better at running up steep hills because it is such a mental thing. Long, gradual hills just hurt (in my opinion).
Instead of pushing through a fatigued 4 mile run, I stopped at two with a vow that I'm going to run 4 tomorrow morning. During the middle of a training cycle I probably would have forced myself to keep going, but since I'm just coming off a healing knee, I'd rather stay fairly recreational at this point. I'm feeling antsy to go for a jog now (or "yog" as I playfully like to call it) but I know better.
I'm baaackboo
After almost 2 months of no running, I am more than happy to say that I. Am. Back! Of course back does not equal as good as new, so I am trying to keep my mileage low for a while and re-enter the running world slowly.
A brief recap of this week's running:
Sunday - 5 mile race - 38.47 min.
Monday - Rest - yardwork & walk
Tuesday - 4 mile run
Wednesday - 2 mile run
Thursday - 4 mile run
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Rest/easy jog
Sunday - 10k race
It's so great to be back!
A brief recap of this week's running:
Sunday - 5 mile race - 38.47 min.
Monday - Rest - yardwork & walk
Tuesday - 4 mile run
Wednesday - 2 mile run
Thursday - 4 mile run
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Rest/easy jog
Sunday - 10k race
It's so great to be back!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Good news and bad news
I feel like I haven't posted in forever...just like I feel I haven't been running forever. But in reality, it's only be 3 weeks. Hopefully this will be the last week of complete rest. Ever since decided to stop cross training and just focus on resting/yoga/stretching, my knee pain improved by leaps and bounds. It still gets twingy and tight but nothing compared to the beginning of last week; the pain flare ups are fewer and farther in between and that's great news.
I've been tempted to go do a test run but somehow I've managed to talk myself out of that; I know my body needs the rest and running before I feel confident that I would not cause a setback in healing would be stupid. So sometime towards the end of next week my running should be making a slow comeback...hopefully.
The bad news is that I've managed to come down with a stomach bug that just won't quit. It started bothering me yesterday morning, peaked yesterday afternoon, and is now decided that it doesn't really want to leave me alone today. I definitely feel much better than yesterday but I still have that "feed me ginger and crackers or else I'll rebel" feeling, which is never fun.
Oh well. It's Wednesday and we're halfway through the week!
I've been tempted to go do a test run but somehow I've managed to talk myself out of that; I know my body needs the rest and running before I feel confident that I would not cause a setback in healing would be stupid. So sometime towards the end of next week my running should be making a slow comeback...hopefully.
The bad news is that I've managed to come down with a stomach bug that just won't quit. It started bothering me yesterday morning, peaked yesterday afternoon, and is now decided that it doesn't really want to leave me alone today. I definitely feel much better than yesterday but I still have that "feed me ginger and crackers or else I'll rebel" feeling, which is never fun.
Oh well. It's Wednesday and we're halfway through the week!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Back from the dead
I've been reluctant to post here lately because I have been feeling a bit down about not being able to run. I know that I should be glad that I'm giving my body the time to rest and heal, but lately even things like walking down stairs have started to cause a knee pain flare so I've stopped all "athletic activity" for the week (i.e. no swimming and cycling for me this week). Deciding to take a nearly complete rest week was difficult but I want my knee to heal as soon as possible and this seems like the best possible way to do that.
With that said, I have started to do yoga again. Some poses start to make my knee feel a little iffy but as long as I don't put any unnecessary pressure on it, everything is fine and dandy. Plus poses like warrior will help get my leg strength back up.
My first "back to yoga" class was yesterday. Before that I hadn't taken yoga since January. I used to be in a fabulous habit of taking at least 3 yoga classes a week but I (obviously) fell out of that habit. But I need to get back into it; my muscles were screaming tightness yesterday. Even sitting in lotus pose made my hip flexors cry. That is not good. At all. It's amazing what muscles aren't reached during plain 'ole stretching...(and it's amazing what muscles yoga works. I admit that my arms are a bit sore today).
I'm hoping the combination of yoga and rest will provide my body the basis for good healing. We'll see.
With that said, I have started to do yoga again. Some poses start to make my knee feel a little iffy but as long as I don't put any unnecessary pressure on it, everything is fine and dandy. Plus poses like warrior will help get my leg strength back up.
My first "back to yoga" class was yesterday. Before that I hadn't taken yoga since January. I used to be in a fabulous habit of taking at least 3 yoga classes a week but I (obviously) fell out of that habit. But I need to get back into it; my muscles were screaming tightness yesterday. Even sitting in lotus pose made my hip flexors cry. That is not good. At all. It's amazing what muscles aren't reached during plain 'ole stretching...(and it's amazing what muscles yoga works. I admit that my arms are a bit sore today).
I'm hoping the combination of yoga and rest will provide my body the basis for good healing. We'll see.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Who woulda thunk it
Never in a million years did I think that I would choose swimming over cycling. But I did this morning; I had been planning on doing a 30 minute bike ride followed by a 45 minute swim but I just couldn't handle the idea of sitting on a spinning bike for 45 minutes, overheating and wishing I could be running. So I decided to swim.
I always lose track of how many laps I've done so I've just been using time as a determinant. Today I swam for an hour; I did 20 minutes of breaststroke, 17 minutes of kicking drills, and 23 more minutes of breaststroke. I need to do more research on swimming drills and test them out to see which ones aggravate my knee and which ones don't because I know that being stuck with breaststroke only is going to get old very quickly.
I also did some leg exercises this morning. I haven't talked to the physical therapist yet because she's booked up until the end of this week but I do have a list of exercises that I got the last time I went through physical therapy so I've been trying to do those at least once or twice a day and I do think that they're helping (wow, run-on sentence). I haven't been in tremendous pain the past two days (knock on wood).
I always lose track of how many laps I've done so I've just been using time as a determinant. Today I swam for an hour; I did 20 minutes of breaststroke, 17 minutes of kicking drills, and 23 more minutes of breaststroke. I need to do more research on swimming drills and test them out to see which ones aggravate my knee and which ones don't because I know that being stuck with breaststroke only is going to get old very quickly.
I also did some leg exercises this morning. I haven't talked to the physical therapist yet because she's booked up until the end of this week but I do have a list of exercises that I got the last time I went through physical therapy so I've been trying to do those at least once or twice a day and I do think that they're helping (wow, run-on sentence). I haven't been in tremendous pain the past two days (knock on wood).
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