Thursday Thoughts : marathon training...or not.

My thoughts towards marathon training have been all over the map lately.  There's the part of me that says my body clearly does not want to handle the level of training that my mind says I can handle.  There's also the part of me that says I am not a quitter and I'm not going to let anything get in my way. 

Maybe I keep having setbacks because my goals are beyond what my body is capable of.  Maybe I keep having setbacks because I am just too enthusiastic about training and I keep upping my mileage/pace too quickly.  Maybe I keep having setbacks just because life happens and luck has not been on my side.  It's probably a combination of all 3 scenarios...

Now that I've lost a full month of marathon training, I was seriously considering deferring my Pittsburgh Marathon entry for a year.  Not because I think it is impossible for me to be ready for the race in May, but more just to take the self-induced pressure off myself for awhile.  And also because I will be chaperoning a week-long field trip to Tybee Island/Savannah with my middle school students the week before the marathon and so I will already be exhausted when I hit the starting line.  The timing of this field trip + marathon will not be kind to me.  BUT, it turns out the Pittsburgh Marathon does not give you the option to defer entry for a year, like some races do.  So, I'm going to run the race this year, but am currently working on convincing myself not to care about my finish time, but just to run the race for love of the run. 

I know I still have plenty of time to prepare for the race and maybe I will magically manage to get adequate sleep on the field trip and arrive in Pittsburgh well-rested and ready to crush the race, but realistically that is unlikely. 

After several weeks of just a few 3-4 mile runs per week, I have successfully run two 6 mile runs so far this week, and my foot seems to be doing ok.  I have new orthotics to help take pressure off my tendonitis, and today I test-ran a new pair of Hokas that are nice and stiff to help reduce the bending in my foot as I run, which should also help.  It's still too early to go back to planning long runs, but I'm starting to feel more optimistic about being able to resume training rather than needing to take a month completely off. 

Today, I'm grateful for a fabulous test-run in my new Clifton 4s, with a last mile fast-finish of 6:56.

I'm also grateful for shorts weather twice in one week, in February.

And, of course, I'm grateful for my running buddies!

RI week 2 :July déjà vu

Last year while in RI around the 4th of July, I strained my back with too much biking and then destroyed it with a track workout. This year, I strained my back doing TRX and then destroyed it with a track workout. I never learn... It was a lot worse this year. My back was strained by bad form in ab exercises, pulled on by tight leg muscles from overdoing the squats and lunges, and then insulted by 10x300 on the track. But hey, despite the pain, I hit between my goal times of 59-61 seconds every time. Perhaps without the pain I could have had them all at 57-59 though... Anyway, my leg muscles got so tight I couldn't straighten my back for a few days. The foam roller was minimally helpful. The heating pad allowed me to straighten for as long as the muscles stayed hot. I ended up not being able to get any exercise other than walking for the rest of the week. I've decided that my body creates problems just to make me take time off since I'm so bad at keeping training easy. Also bad at listening to minor aches and pains. My back had started hurting before the sprints but it wasn't bad enough for me to be able to give them up like I should have.

This week:

M : 30 minute TRX

       run w/ sister 4.2 / 8:47 / 337ft

T : warm up 1 / 8:52 / 91 ft

      10x300 : 61, 59, 60x6, 61, 59 

        recoveries were 100+m walk til HR was below 125

       cool down : 1 / 10:46 / 72 ft

W : 15 min yoga

       1.4 mile walk

R : 1.3 mile walk 

Su : 2.5 mile walk  

total miles runs : 9

Easy mileage week ended with an ankle-buster

I was surprised to find that I was not at all sore after last Sunday's 18 miler, but I think my legs were a bit tired.  I wasn't really feeling any longer runs, so I took it pretty easy all week.  With a 10 mile race coming up I wanted to make sure I didn't overdo it.  By Saturday I was feeling pretty good, and started thinking that it might be fun to go for a trail run. I meant for it to be slow and easy, with stops to take photos.  Then Ben texted to say he was going trail running in Damascus, did I want to go?  So off to Damascus we went, to run 4 miles up a mountain on the AT and then 4 miles back down.  It was gorgeous out, and my legs felt good.  I was worried about busting an ankle, but tried to run as carefully as I could.  Coming back down the mountain both ankles were hurting from the uneven terrain, even without either of them actually being rolled.  And then I had 1 mis-step on my right ankle.  The same ankle I sprained really badly a year ago.  As far as ankle-rolls go, it wasn't too bad, and I ran the last 2 miles with no more mishaps, but being even more careful than before.  The ankle was sore, but it didn't feel like a sprain, and I figured it would be fine.  As the day wore on, I realized it was a bit worse than I thought, and I realized I would have to take a day or two off after all.

I took today off from running and did TRX instead.  My ankle is feeling better after it's rest day, but I can tell it is pretty weak.  I will probably end up taking tomorrow off as well, just to be safe.

This week : 

M : run 4.2 / 8:04 / 190 ft

W : early AM run 6 / 8:36 / 292 ft

R : group run 6.2 / 8:23 / 144 ft

Sa : trail w/Ben 8.2 / 9:44 / 1791 ft

Su : TRX 30 minutes abs/arms

total miles : 24.6

Appalachian Trail south from Damascus, VA

we crossed into Tennessee about 3.5 miles in, 

and turned around at 4.1 when we reached the top of the mountain

the view from the top

what's a gorgeous day on a mountain after a 4 mile climb without a jumping photo?

the state line

Ben heading back down the mountain

4 months of work building up my lungs has gone down the drain

Ugh.  So, I'm running again.  My ankle doesn't hurt at all for walking/running, it only hurts if it has to twist (basically, it only hurts if I unclip from bike pedals).  I discovered pretty quickly that my lungs are right back where they were 4 months ago when I started building them back up from my last bout of tendonitis.  I have 2 weeks to strengthen them before my next race.

This week : 

M : sweatfest 33 minutes / 9 miles / 16.4 mph

Pub Run 3.1 / 7:48 / 0 ft

T : 17 min TRX

run 3.4 miles / 7:28 / 39 ft

W : bike 20.8 / 18 mph / 1512 ft

R : 17 min TRX

run 5 miles / 7:42 / 147 ft

Sa : run 6.2 / 7:22 / 343 ft

Su : run 5 miles / 7:06 / 335 ft

total bike miles : 29.8

total run miles : 22.8

My heart rate was through the roof on my runs this week.  I guess it's understandable for today's run at a 7:06 pace after my time off, but my 5 mile jog on Thursday resulted in a heart rate profile that looks like one I would normally see after a half marathon, not after a jog!

This is my HR profile for a run on February 19 at the same pace as this Thursday's run.

This is Thursday's HR profile

And this is Sunday's.

Saturday's is similar to Sunday's except the bars are longer and the suffer score is higher, because it was a longer run.  And it says "Extreme" instead of "Tough"...

My heart rate made it above 200 a few times this week...it never got that high in the 10 mile race I did in February...weak lungs are making my heart work awfully hard right now!  My solution to this problem is to run as hard as I can, every time I run, until my lungs are beaten into submission.  It was working great until halfway through today's run when my legs decided it wasn't fun anymore.

Adding up the Bike Miles

Ugh, injuries.  I don't think my body likes being healthy.  Why else would it decide to break right after the best long run I've ever had?

It's debatable at this point which is harder on my ankle, riding or running.  So I probably should have taken the week off from both, but I'm not good at that.  So I've been riding.  I even gave up the 5k race yesterday, which was disappointing, but probably the better choice.

This week : 

M : Pub Run 3.1 / 8:36 / 0 ft

T : bike 20.5 / 18 mph / 1499 ft

F : bike 24.3 / 17.5 mph / 1847 ft

Sa : bike 27.3 / 16.2 mph / 2283 ft

total run miles : 3.1

total bike miles : 72.2

My ankle actually felt really good on Monday's run.  So good I was really tempted to run further, but I decided to be smart and stop after 2 laps like everyone else.

Tuesday's ride was good, and my ankle didn't seem to be strained too badly, but then I was stretching afterwards and apparently moved my foot just the wrong way, because my ankle was suddenly filled with stabbing pains.  So that set me back a good bit, and resulted in 2 days off.

My back did some complaining on Friday's ride, and even more on Saturday's ride.  Not really surprising, given how many miles I rode this week after not riding much at all for months.  I'm going to have to stretch it a lot more until it gets into better bike shape.  Which hopefully won't take long, because Spring is here and I will be on the bike more often!  (I think.)

The world hasn't turned green yet, but it was warm and sunny all week!

Lazy Week a/k/a Recovery Week

Because I don't believe in taking days of for injuries, I went for a run on Monday.  I taped up my ankle first, but that still doesn't necessarily mean that it was ok to run on it.  I didn't actually have a visible ankle bone at that point... However, it seemed to loosen up throughout the run and seemed no worse for the wear.  I told my friends that my body has magical healing powers because it knows I don't believe in rest.

It was warmer out on Tuesday, so I took the opportunity to bike.  The twisting motion of unclipping from the pedals was uncomfortable for my ankle, but it survived.  (The swelling was down enough for my ankle bone to reappear by now)

On Wednesday I decided to take the day off.  I stayed late at work trying to get ahead instead.  It seems the harder I try to get ahead, the more I find to do.  So in the end, I never really get that far ahead.  I would love to get ahead enough that I can start working on the yearbook during school hours, instead of relying on snow days (of which there may not be any more) and weekends.  Wishful thinking. Stayed til 5 on Wednesday, and went in at 6 AM on Thursday, and I still ended up getting sucked into the yearbook vortex this weekend.  On the plus side, I do enjoy working on the yearbook.  It may not be my first choice of a way to spend my weekends, but at least it's fun!

I went for a run on Thursday, and felt pretty good.  Friday morning when I woke up my ankle informed me, through various aches and pains, that just because I could  run, didn't mean I should run.  So I didn't run again for the rest of the week.  And I have been faithfully icing, elevating, and wrapping my ankle all week long!  And taking ibuprofen occasionally, just in case it will help.  I'm impressed with my new-found powers of taking care of injuries.

The weather wasn't nice enough for me to be tempted to bike on Friday or Saturday, so I didn't exercise.  I was hoping the temperature would reach 50 on Sunday for a bike ride, but it only got a little bit above 40.  I spent several hours debating whether or not to bike.  I eventually decided I wasn't going to, and started my Sunday cooking-fest.  Then the sun came out and even though it was still only about 41 degrees, I decided exercise was a much better option than 3 days off in a row. So I biked.  It snowed a few times this week, so the roads were covered in extra grit and gravel, which was highly annoying, but it didn't actually cause me any traction problems.  Probably because I was being extra careful.

This week : 

M : run 4.3 miles / 8:09 / 284 ft

T : bike 18.4 miles / 16.5 mph / 1457 ft

R : run 5.3 / 7:29 / 420 ft

Su : bike 17.7 miles / 17.7 mph / 1329 ft

total bike miles : 36.2

total run miles : 9.6

Winter decided to show up

Last Saturday I enjoyed a sunny warm run in shorts and short sleeves.  This Saturday, there was ice and snow on the ground and a cold wind blowing. Last Saturday's run was definitely the more enjoyable of the two!

Runs this week : 

M : Pub Run 6 / 7:36

T : 6.1 / 7:56

F : 4.3 / 6:55

Sa : 5.2 / 7:58
total miles : 21.7

The Pub run this week was one of the warmest we've had.  It was actually warm enough to run in shorts, even though we were running after sunset!  It was just three of us again, it seems that the core group of runners has been established. Tuesday's run was just a jog around town to get some exercise. I took Wednesday off because of a staff/board Christmas party at 5.  I would have only had time for  a short fast run and I didn't feel like doing that.  I thought I would run Thursday, but I ended up babysitting all afternoon after school instead.  Friday the staff Christmas party/secret santa gift exchange was at 5, but I really needed a run, so I did short and fast.  In the snow.  First snow fall of the season happened on our last day of school before Christmas break.  No more than a dusting ever ended up sticking to the ground, but that dusting still hasn't melted in some places.  The roads froze into a solid sheet of ice overnight on Friday.  I waited til lunchtime on Saturday to run so that the roads wouldn't be quite as slick, but there was still ice in the shadows.  

In other news, I am kicking off my Christmas vacation with a root canal tomorrow.  Sadly, my front tooth did not survive the bike crash three weeks ago. Desperately hoping that the root canal goes without a hitch and no new problems arise.  

Bike Week + going out with a bang

Lots of bike miles this week!  I got 100 miles for the first time since early August.  Having a week off from school made it much easier to get the miles in, and the weather was cooperative as well.  As of yesterday morning, I had about 93 miles.  I thought about going for a run since I hadn't done that at all this week, but I was so close to 100 miles, I had to bike again.  Plus it was warm enough to bike in shorts!  I made plans with a friend to go for a 40-ish mile ride right after lunch.  The ride started out well enough.  We were cruising along at a good pace after racing down a long hill.  We were talking, and I was looking at him instead of at the road.  It was a freshly paved road, which means the edge of the pavement drops sharply several inches into the weeds.  My front tire slipped off the road.  Instead of doing the smart thing and laying over into the weeds, I tried to save it and swerve back onto the pavement.  It did not work out well for me.  Thankfully there were no broken bones and nothing needed stitches.  I do have a good bit of road rash though.  And the worst part is that one of my front teeth seems to have taken the hardest hit.  It got bent back a little bit.  I was able to push it back into place, but it was not a pleasant feeling, and it is now a bit loose.  I can't bite at all, and sometimes when I am talking my bottom teeth hit it, which is very unpleasant.  Small town life means I have already been put in touch with a dentist who is ready to help me out if I need it.  Only time will tell if my tooth will recover on its own or if I will need a root canal, or a new tooth.  For now all I can do is wait and hope for the best.  

As far as crashes go, I could not have been any luckier.  I wasn't alone and I wasn't seriously injured.  And, even better, minutes after I crashed, Merrick drove by in the bike shop van with his family, so they were able to take me and my bike back to their house and help me clean up the wound on my knee and some of the road rash.  It was nice not to have to bike up the three mile hill to home after that crash!   

 

Bike Rides This Week

T : 22.3 miles / 16.9 mph / 1148 ft (Portsmouth, RI)

W : 27 miles / 17.6 mph / 843 ft (Newport, RI w/Cecilia & Scott)

R : 43.6 miles / 15.3 mph / 33327 ft (Aquidneck Island, RI, TSS Thanksgiving Hill Fest)

Sa : 7 miles / 20.1 mph / 423 ft (Lewisburg, WV w/Dan)

total bike miles : 100.1

Thursday's ride with Ten Speed Spokes was my longest ride since late July, and my first ride over 30 miles on the Super Six.  It was a tough hill ride, and I forgot my inhaler, which didn't make the hills any easier, but I had a great ride.  It was fun to ride with a group for once.  

Photos from Tuesday's ride

My face post-crash.

I do not understand how I hit hard enough to knock a tooth out of place, 

but my face doesn't look any worse than this.  

My chin is bruised, but doesn't even have a mark on it!

Trying not to run...it's so hard.

The Beckley 1/2 marathon was yesterday.  I spent the week trying to talk myself into taking an extended period of time off from running. And trying to convince myself to accept that I am "in retirement" from half marathons for the foreseeable future.  It's not because the foot pain has gotten overwhelming, or because it is preventing me from running, because it is doing neither of those things.  But it is there.  And it is not going away.  Some days I don't notice it at all.  Other days it is just strong enough to be annoying and remind me that it hasn't left yet.  I was up to 8 mile runs, but I could just tell that half marathon distance and speed were unattainable.  And if I am giving up on my fall half marathons, what is the point in pushing it?  I have a bike and an indoor trainer, so it's not like I won't be able to get adequate exercise if I quit running.  It will prolong my lung issues, I believe, since they are still not resolved, and running is the only thing that really makes them work, but oh well.  I am resigned to spending a lot of money on asthma drugs for the foreseeable future.  The most frustrating part about that, is that if I'm not running like I used to, it is hard to say how effective the drugs are.

I have been against going to the doctor for this foot for various reasons.  The primary reason being that my other foot was more painful, and I spent roughly $1000 on doctors/tests/PT only to find out that the only thing that would help was rest.  I don't have another $1000 to spend for that.  I would be willing to spend money if I knew of a good sports medicine doctor that would explore all possibilities to keep me running.  But I don't know of one.  A friend of mine who works at the hospital has talked to a doctor she knows who might be able to help me.  So I might go see that doctor, we'll see.


In other news, even if I "quit" running, I will still be doing jogs here and there.  A year ago, I tried to start a "Pub Run" in Lewisburg.  It never happened.  I brought up the idea again a few weeks ago.  The first one was scheduled for Sept 7.  A bunch of people had expressed interest, but I think at the time, they didn't realize that it was Labor Day.  I showed up at the meeting place, but no one else did.  I assumed people had gotten busy with the holiday, and resolved not to give up after just one day.  One of my friends told me for sure that they would come to the run this week, so I showed up again.  When I arrived, there was already someone else waiting.  And then another person showed up.  Add my friend and I, and there were 4 of us for the Inaugural Lewisburg Pub Run.  (Roanoke has a weekly pub run that draws somewhere around 100 runners).  We had a good time doing a flat 3 mile jog, and then headed to the Irish Pub for $3 drafts.  All four of us knew of other people that were planning on joining the run sometime in the weeks coming up.  So it looks like this attempt has been a success.  I am hoping that the group will grow, and that it will help bring together the Lewisburg running community.  I think I started the Facebook group for Lewisburg runners about 2 years ago, and it has over 100 members, but there has never been any kind of organized running club.

3 of us made it to the Pub after our run.

See how happy we are to have participated in the Inaugural Pub Run?

In addition to leading the Pub Run each week, I will also continue to jog with one of my 8th grade students once a week for as long as she is interested in continuing.

This week : 

M : 40 min trainer (10.6), 3 mile Pub Run

T : 30 min trainer intervals* (7.9), 3 mile jog w/Luna

W : 22.4 miles with Stu

F : 30 min trainer (7.8)

Sa :26 miles

total miles run : 6

total miles biked : 74.7

* intervals : warm up, 1 min hard/3 min easy x5, cool down

I finished out my week with a ride around the fields today.  Thankfully Pony let me walk up to her today, unlike last Sunday when I had to chase her around the field for an hour before she would let me catch her.  

This guy was hanging out right in front of the barn door.  

The cats were trying to reach him under the door. 

They were not happy with me for not letting them out.

Pony never misses a good post-ride roll.

Post-roll glamour shot.

Such a pretty day.

There were a bunch of monarch butterflies flying around,

 but they were too fast for me to focus my zoom lens. 

My spirit animal is a masochistic mountain goat

This week I biked 134.8 miles with 15,194 ft of climbing.  That's A LOT of climbing.  My 200 mile week in RI got me 11,000 ft.  A normal 75-100 mile week in WV gets me 6-10,000.  My highest weekly WV mileage was a week last August when I got 135.9 miles.  (If I had checked that before today's ride, I would have biked a few extra miles to beat it...) The elevation gain that week was only 10,755 ft.  And this week I climbed over 15,000 ft.  And I feel fine.  I could go out right now and ride again.  My legs are strong.  My back has hardly been giving me any trouble this year.  Last year I could barely do any long rides because of awful back pain.  Without that pain this year, I have been able to ride 30+ miles easily.  And I have been trying to take advantage of it as much as possible.

My only problem lately has been neck pain.  It's like there are magnets in my shoulders and ears that keep trying to draw together.  I am constantly catching my shoulders hunched up by my ears and having to consciously work to relax them.  If I go too long without remembering to lower my shoulders, my neck cramps up pretty bad.  I think another contributing factor is my increasing fearless-ness on descents.  I have gotten over my initial fear of flying downhills, but in order to go fast, I have to crouch down and lay flat over the bike.  When I am this low over the bike, the only way to see where I am going is to bend my neck at a sharp angle.  I think that sharp angle is contributing to the pain.  I haven't yet figured out what to do about that.

Miles this week:

M : bike 55.3

T : run 5.5

R : run 5.6

F : bike 23.6

Sa : bike 23.7

Su : bike 32.1

total bike miles : 134.8

total run miles : 11.1

Running

I decided at some point in the last few weeks that I missed running too much and needed to run no matter what.  Never mind the fact that my foot is clearly not pain free, or the fact that my inhaler barely works and I struggle to get enough oxygen when I run.  I still love the run, and I really, really, miss daily running.  I decided that I was going to run 3-4 times a week, breathe as best I could, and ice my foot really well after each run.  

This seemed to work well enough for a bit.  I felt good enough to add a weekly mileage goal on Strava.  (I have had a 75 mile/week bike goal all summer, and I have had a 15 mile/week running goal on and off, depending on how things are going.)  I added the 15 mile running goal last week, and ran 16 miles.  I didn't feel too bad.  I couldn't run as fast as I wanted due to the asthma, but my foot really wasn't feeling too bad, and I was really good about icing it after each run.  

This week, I ran twice.  The first run was decent.  My avg pace was below 8 min/mile, which at this point I have to consider pretty good, even though I would prefer it to be well under 7:30.  On my second run, I decided to do some 400m "sprints."  It wasn't quite all-out, but I would say I was exerting around 80% effort, instead of the 50 or less that I keep for most of my runs.  I spread 6, 400m sprints throughout my run, whenever I had a long enough flat-ish stretch.  All of them had an average grade of either 0% or -1%. 

("Teaberry short" is the complete stretch between the Longview & Summit 400s, it has an average grade of 10%...in other words, it isn't the easiest recovery ever.  "WVSOM sprint" is the first half of the "WVSOM 400")

At some point during the week, my foot started hurting more than normal.  it might simply be that I spent a good bit of time walking around in my horseback-riding boots, which I don't ever seem to remember to put my orthotics in.  I normally where my Chaco sandals all day, because they are the only summer-type footwear I own that NEVER makes my foot hurt.  At all.  The foot pain got to be just enough that I managed to talk myself out of running my 15 miles this week.  I really, really, wanted to go out and run today after my ride, just to get to 15.  I am trying to balance my craving for running with my desire to be injury-free.  It's not easy.  But I did manage to talk myself out of running today.  I am starting to accustom myself to the idea that I may have to give up my fall races. That would be really disappointing, after already skipping all of the summer ones.  But I am seeing it as a very real possibility that I will not be able to run a successful half marathon by September or October.  Still hoping things work out though, of course.  

Biking

I found out sometime on Sunday that I wouldn't be working until Wednesday, so I decided I should make use of my extra two days off and go on an adventure.  The saga of Monday's ride can be found here.

I had planned to bike after babysitting on Wednesday, but ended up spending the time after work hanging out with a friend instead.  Babysitting 8:30-5:30 every day makes it hard to find energy for a good workout afterwards.  Thursday I got up early so I could run before work and have time to ride my horse after work.  (Wednesday I got up early to ride her before work).  Friday I didn't get home til almost 6, but I was overdue for a bike ride, so after eating just enough food to sustain me for a ride, I headed out on the bike and got a good ride in.  I wanted a longer ride, but there are only so many hours of daylight, and I couldn't risk getting stuck out past the point where there was enough sunlight to be safe.  

The Wheels of Hope ride last Saturday had left my neck really sore, and Monday's ride only made it worse.  Usually I can get about 20 miles in before my neck is really bothering me, but on Friday's ride it was hurting a lot sooner.  I really wanted a long ride this weekend, but wasn't sure how much pain I should really be inflicting upon myself.  There was a route I had been planning on the western end of the county that was 25-30 miles long, and I decided to do that on Saturday instead of trying to do a 50+ miler like I really wanted to do.  Now that I have this awesome roof-rack on my car, I am enjoying how easy it is to take my bike other places to ride.  So I drove out to the western end of the county and started out on the loop I had planned.  I ended up taking a wrong turn at some point, but by the time I figured it out, I had gone to far to make it worth turning back.  And I recognized the road name as one I had passed earlier, so I knew where it would spit me out, and knew it would be easy enough to get back to my car.  The road was some of the worst pavement I've ridden, which was unfortunate, but thankfully I survived it without flatting.  Because of the wrong turn, the ride ended up shorter than planned, but it included a good bit of climbing, with more than a fair share of 14% grades, so I didn't feel the need to add-on at the end.  

I stopped by the bike shop on the way home to drop off my bike so Stu could tune it up and put on the new front derailleur he ordered for me before I left for RI.  I hadn't gotten in put on yet because I was too busy riding the bike and didn't want to leave it in the shop.  I found out earlier this week that he wasn't too busy, so I knew I could drop off the bike and have it back later in the day.  I picked it up that afternoon, with its new derailleur and a new chain.  

After yesterday's ride, I was over 100 miles for the week, with 12-13,000 ft of climbing.  But I didn't feel the need to take a day off today, and I wanted to test ride the new parts on the bike.  So I picked a route that I hadn't done yet this summer and set out to make this a week of ridiculous climbing.  Somewhere in the middle of the ride as I was laboring up a mountain, I decided my spirit animal was a masochistic mountain goat.  Not that I actually believe in spirit animals...but if I did... I must be a mountain goat for the amount of climbing I am doing without my legs dying.  And the masochism is an excuse for why I would even try to do so much climbing in the first place.  Although I don't think it's actually masochism...because I wasn't in that much pain.  

Photos from today's ride:

I am not sure what this coming week will bring in terms of exercise.  I will be babysitting Monday-Friday, and it looks like the hours will probably be around 8:30-5:30.  That will make it hard to bike too much...but then again I might be determined enough to make it work. We shall see. If I have a lighter week, I will try not to feel too bad about it, since I put in such a great week of miles and climbing this week!

Pittsburgh 1/2 : My lungs failed me again

Oh yay, they made the shirts my "favorite" color.

The guys got green shirts...lucky.

It is SO frustrating to have your legs be in great shape and ready to carry you to a PR, and then have your lungs laugh in your face and constrict so tight you can't draw a proper breath.  And then your legs start slowing down because they don't have enough oxygen to hold onto the pace that they would otherwise be comfortable with.

When my lungs are in shape, breathing tends to be easy for the first 6 or 7 miles. Then it gradually starts getting harder, but just in the sense that I am breathing faster.  I am still getting enough oxygen, I just need to take more breaths per minute.  During this race, my breathing started getting tight after the first mile or two.  I had to put extra effort into drawing deep breaths, and really think about my breathing.  I knew this was not a good sign.  But since I already knew I was going to have problems later in the race, I decided to keep the pace up as long as I could, so that hopefully it would all balance out in the end.  By mile 9 I was really struggling as my legs started to feel the effects of less oxygen.  Somewhere around the end of mile 11 is when my lungs were feeling really constricted and I didn't have a chance of picking up the pace anymore.  I kept telling myself only 4 miles left, only a 5k left, only 2 miles left... Under normal circumstances, I am able to kick even though I am out of breath, because I am still getting enough oxygen and I know I will be fine to the finish line.  Under these circumstances, nothing can get me to pick up the pace except for the finish line actually being within view.  Understandably, my body just won't let me go any further into oxygen debt, no matter how much I might want to try.

At least my slowest mile was also the "hilliest."

Not that anything on this course really counted as a hill.

The day started out well enough.  I had to get up at 4:15 in the morning, which wasn't so fun, but I did make it out of bed and had a tasty cinnamon bagel with peanut butter and a banana.  Then my aunt took me to the train station to catch a 5:30 train into the city.  Thankfully, a good friend had offered to hold my sweats and phone for me during the race, so I was able to wear my sweats for the chilly wait on the train platform.  The phone was quite useful in helping me find him once I got off the train.  Once I found him, there was some hanging around with our other friends who were running, and then it was time to get into my corral right before they closed it off at 6:45.  Once in the corral, I jogged a block or two as a "warm-up" as I traveled closer to the front of the corral.  Then there was the usual standing around waiting for go time.  Finally, we were off.  I tried to settle into a comfortable pace.  I had to really focus on my breathing to try to keep my lungs as open as possible.  The course itself wasn't one of my favorites.  It was much too flat.  Really the only hills were the bridges, and they weren't much more than bumps in the road.  There was a hill in mile 12, but even in my oxygen deprived state, it didn't seem like much of a hill to me.

I finished the race with an official time of 1:31:10.  I was 194 out of 14, 577 runners.  I was the 31st female, and the 13th in my age group.  I didn't make my goal of finishing in the top 30, or of finishing with a PR.  But I did the best I could with my asthmatic lungs.  Maybe I will try again another year.

I knew going into this race that I would probably be out of running for awhile afterwards.  I hurt my right foot (not the one I had trouble with a year ago) about 2 weeks ago.  I have been taking it easy ever since, but I wasn't going to give up this race.  I was smart enough not to sign up for any races after this one, in case I ended up unable to run, since race fees are non-refundable.  Smart choice. My foot didn't bother me much during the race, but it definitely hurt afterward.  Pre-race, I was able to walk in Danskos or Chacos without pain.  Post-race, my foot hurt no matter what I wore, but at least only hurt a little bit in Danskos.  So, looks like I'm stuck in Danskos now.  Too bad, because it's warm out now and I want to wear sandals!  Hopefully after a few days of being careful I can at least start wearing my Chaco sandals again.  I am expecting to take a month off of running (or maybe just til my birthday at the end of May, because who wouldn't want to celebrate their birthday with a run?!).  I am going to wait two weeks before deciding if I need to go to the doctor or not.  If I can walk without pain after two weeks I will just continue resting.  If walking still hurts, I will go to the doctor.  And if I end up at the doctor, I will definitely be talking about my asthma too.  I don't want to have to keep being let down by my lungs during races, if there might be something I can do to prevent it.  

For now...I see a lot of biking in my future!  I did discover yesterday that my foot hurts the least when I walk in cycling shoes...maybe I will have to start a new fashion trend. 

Update

I am more sore from yesterday's two mile jog than I was after a 58 mile bike ride.  I felt the soreness when I got up this morning, and it wasn't too bad.  Not bad enough to stop me from biking 32 miles anyway.  And I really didn't notice it at all during the ride.  But as the day wore on, the soreness increased.  And then this evening I discovered that I have shin splints.  I am super not-happy about that.  I planned on jogging another 2 miles tomorrow, now I'm not so sure.  I do not want to be adding shin splints to my list of grievances!  Decisions, decisions.

2 months and counting

71 days, to be exact.  71 DAYS since my last run.  I have not run since my birthday at the end of May.  2 months came and went, and I still have not run.  At this point, it is a difficult decision for me, for various reasons.  And the longer I wait, the harder it might get.

At this point, I have no delusions about the fact that I may be starting from scratch.  I have never in my memory taken this many weeks off in a row.  So I am rather afraid of what it will feel like when I try to run again.  Part of the problem is that I really, really, really want to go for a run.  But I want to walk out the door and take off like I used to, and fly through the miles at a sub-7 minute pace and feel great doing it.  But realistically, there is a 0% chance that I will be able to do that.  There are days when I think about going for a run, but I don't trust my ability to keep it slow.  And so, I don't let myself run at all.  When I start running again, I have to be able to start slow.  And knowing myself, I know that will be the hardest part.  And sometimes it's easier not to run at all than to think about going for an easy jog.

My personal desire to run fast and hard aside, there is also the fact that I really have no clue what the state of my tendonitis is.  Most days my foot feels perfectly fine.  Sometimes it aches just a bit, but not necessarily in the precise spot that it used to.  10 weeks and 1 day after my last run, and I have no idea if my foot is actually better or not.  I am pretty sure the only way to find out is to run.  And to start with a flat mile or two and slowly build up if there is no pain.

Obviously I'm going to have to make a decision.  I'm going to have to pick a day when I think I can make myself jog (right now I'm thinking I will have to go for a long bike ride first to tire myself out...), and I'm going to have to find out whether or not I am pain free.  When precisely that day will come...I have no idea.  I have some vague notion that it will coincide with the beginning of school (in last than 2 weeks!!).

In the meantime, I will continue biking.  I have had to take some time off to let my back recover from the wheels of hope ride.  Last week I had content myself with my minimum weekly mileage of 75 miles, rather than pushing for 120-ish like I usually do.  However, despite the fact that I had to lower my average daily mileage and my average weekly mileage due to back pain, I have recently noticed that my legs have gotten significantly stronger.  Some of the hills that used to wear me out even in the easiest gear, I now find myself climbing easily in harder gears, sometimes without even changing my front gear.  Stronger legs help me keep more pressure off my back.  I've also had to start doing some yoga stretches for my back, which have helped me loosen it up.  The fact that biking has finally started working for me is another factor that is helping me take extra time off from running to give my foot as much time as possible.

Update

This past Saturday marked the first time that I was signed up for a race, and then didn't run it.  My foot hurt a lot during my run on the previous Tuesday, and I couldn't keep pretending it was going to work itself out.  I was going to run the race anyway, and make it some kind of "last hurrah" before a doctor told me I had to take some ridiculous amount of time off, but then I decided to be responsible for once.  The decision was made only slightly easier by the fact that I don't like 10k and it was my least favorite race... I did show up at the start line to pick up my t-shirt, and many runners expressed disappointment that I wouldn't be running.  I ran a few errands and then showed up at the finish line just in time to see the first 2 guys finish.  It was disappointing not to be running, but I know it was the right decision.

I went to the doctor this past Tuesday, and she didn't think anything was broken, but she sent me to get x-rays just in case.  I'm still waiting to hear the results from that.  In the meantime, I've been instructed to take ibuprofen 3xs a day, and I will be going to physical therapy to strengthen whatever is messed up in my foot.

The Blue Ridge Half Marathon is 9 days away, and I have no idea if I will be running in it or not.  I do know that if I run, I won't be nearly as competitive as I had hoped.  They changed the course this year, so I would really like to be able to run, at whatever pace, so that I will be familiar with the course next year (when hopefully I will be in top shape and ready to fight for the win).  Seeing as I have only run twice in the last 3+ weeks, and I haven't even exercised at all this week...I'm not sure I will be able to make it through 13 miles even if the doctor says it's ok.

I'm on spring break this week, but somehow I have felt even busier than I do when at school.  I spent the last 3 days babysitting, and today I head to NYC with a friend.  We are very excited, we're going to see Matilda on Broadway!  The not-so-fun part will be the part where I get home Sunday evening and have to race around getting groceries and preparing myself for a full week of school...

I dropped my bike off at the shop yesterday so it can get worked on while I am gone.  Even if I am able to start running again soon, I will need to continue cross-training as much as possible so as to allow my foot to get stronger without stressing it too much.  Bike is getting new tires, since it's current ones are rather dry-rotted, and I'm getting the whole shifting system replaced, because it has been driving me crazy.  Few things are more annoying than needing to shift gears while going up a long steep hill, and having the bike decided it "doesn't feel like it."  Sometimes it doesn't feel like shifting on the flats either, which is less annoying, but still not ok.  What's the point in gears if you can't shift them?


In other news, I just found out that after about 10 years, I have been bumped off the top-ten list for 3000m times at my high school.  I think my PR was 12:26, but I don't remember for sure.  Sometimes I think it would be fun to find out how fast I can run a 3000 now, but then I think about how it involves running circles around a track, and I change my mind.

Happy Almost Easter!  

The 1st/2nd grade class at my school dyed Pysanky eggs this year.  

(spell-check wants me to change "Pysanky" to "swanky")

They came out pretty cool-looking.

Race postponed

I was supposed to run a 10 mile race yesterday, but due to all the snow that got dumped on this part of the country, the race was pushed back to next Saturday.  Convenient for me, because I haven't run since Monday.  My foot started hurting again, and I caught a head cold on Monday evening.  It seems that my immune system was so busy fighting off the constant barrage of flu and pink eye germs flying around, the cold snuck in under the radar.  Luckily I was able to fight it off in just a few days with dayquil, green tea, and lots of sleep.  The snow days on Thursday and Friday helped with the extra sleep part.

The foot pain however has been quite annoying.  Yesterday, I finally got around to asking a doctor friend to look at it.  The verdict is metatarsalgia.  I'm glad it's not a stress-fracture or anything worse, but the annoying part about this diagnosis is that it may mean I need to throw out my stockpile of running shoes and find a new model to run in.  I'm currently rotating three pairs of the same shoe, and I have a 4th pair that I haven't even taken out of the box yet.  It turns out they might be too flexible for my feet.  I'm going to try insoles first, and hope that they will enable me to keep the same shoes at least until I get good use out of the ones I have already bought.  But, if I have to buy new shoes, so be it.

In the meantime, I got lots of exercise shoveling snow on Thursday and Friday.  Here's before and after photos from Thursday's shoveling adventure.  On Friday, I shoveled the snow from around the front and side of my car so that I could actually get out of the parking spot.  I will be parallel parking between 2 snow banks for the foreseeable future.

On Friday, I hiked up the hill to a friends house to hang out for awhile, and then took pictures of her kids sledding.  

 I got a few snowballs thrown at me!