Distance: 5.16k
Time: 35:52
This was the slowest time for a run I’ve had in a long time. There are many things I could potentially blame, such as the cold, windy weather, or my (still) sore knee, or my still having a bit of a cold. But all those things were there on Sunday, and I got my best time. So, I’ll just have to blame it on running slowly. In spite of the time, this was one of the best runs I’ve had for several days. There’s no single reason why, but I felt better after this run than I have in a while. My knee was sore, but it actually got better the longer I ran. My foot pain from Sunday night vanished, despite wearing my old runners, and my toe pain on my left foot (which I haven’t really talked about) was gone, too. I think most of that pain was due to pulling the laces on my shoes too tightly. I loosened the laces for today’s run, and my feet feel much better. I had actually thought it was due to the shoes being too narrow, so my new shoes are wider, but I think I can tighten them up a bit, once I start wearing them.
I think part of why this run felt so good was because of where I was mentally. I’ve had a lot of stress the past few days, worrying about getting this job, and about getting enough hours at work. Although I was hoping to be working today, I decided to let it go and just enjoy the day off. I also wanted to really enjoy knowing I have this job, because even though I’ve known about it for a week, it didn’t feel real until I found out my schedule yesterday. I kept worrying that something would happen and I wouldn’t get it. Now that I have a schedule, it finally feels real to me, and I’m letting myself be happy. Also, I had to leave a lot of stuff up in the air pending this job, because I didn’t know if my schedule would change, like the Times-Colonist 10k in April. So, I got to go on my run without the burden of all this stress weighing me down.
Oddly, I’m not worried about the Edge to Edge Marathon in June, although I probably ought to be. I’ve already booked it, and I don’t know yet if I’m supposed to be working. I just have a feeling that it’ll work itself out. I think I’m less concerned because it’s still 3 months away, so I have time to figure something out.
Again, I’m hoping to be called in to work tomorrow. But if I don’t, I’ll probably go for another run. Maybe this time I can go a bit faster!
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Posted in Running Marathon | 
Tags: Edge to Edge Marathon, knee injury, marathon, New Balance, runners, Running, windy | 
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Distance: 5.08k Wednesday, 12.68k Friday, 5.0k on Sunday
Time: 34:32 Wednesday, 1:29:57 on Friday, 31:59 on Sunday
I have gotten so far behind on my posts that I have had a hard time getting motivated to write, because I keep thinking it will take so long. This is why I hate procrastinating, and really don’t do it very much. I much prefer to do things at once as they come, because it seems to take less time. So, I promise to post more often, so that I don’t have to catch up. This last week has been pretty full, with a job change in the works, my longest run ever, and my new 5K PR, but I’ll start at the beginning as much as I can.
First, last Wednesday’s run. It was so much better than the one on Tuesday. It was warm and sunny, and a pleasure to be outside, although I tried a different run tracking program this time, iMapMyRun. In summary, I hated it. On the plus side, it seemed more accurate than RunKeeper, although I had to turn its own lock function on instead of just sleeping my iPhone for this accuracy. And this is where the program annoyed me to no end. I received a text message while running, which I had to shut off to keep the program running (not its fault; Apple won’t let third-party applications run in the background during a phone call, or when a text message is received until it is turned off). The program’s internal button lock feature was so good, I couldn’t unlock the damn thing and must have spent about 30 seconds pushing random buttons on my iPhone until the program screen came back on. Then, the program was still running anyway! At the end of my run, I had to spend another few seconds randomly pushing buttons to unlock the program to stop it. FYI, RunKeeper doesn’t have its own lock feature, and you just sleep the iPhone the normal way. Way easier to use, even if the accuracy is a bit off. It’s worth my sanity.
Another cool thing about Wednesday’s run was that it was the first time in over a month that my knee didn’t hurt. I read an article from Runner’s World about injury prevention, and one of the tips was to shorten your stride. I tried it and it actually worked! I also found out on Wednesday that I got a job I applied for in late February, on the postpartum ward, which is where I’ve wanted to work for years. Now I just had to wait for my bosses to give me a (hopefully) good recommendation, and find out my start date.
Then we come to Friday’s run, the longest run I’ve done yet. And it felt long. My knee started to hurt again, even though I tried to keep my stride shorter. I really wanted to get in the distance, so I told myself that it didn’t matter how long it took. That took some of the pressure off, and helped keep me motivated to finish the distance. I knew that I could walk part of it if I needed to. I just kept saying to myself, okay, let’s do this much and then I can stop and walk if I have to. Then, when I got there, I did it again. I ended up doing just over 12.5K and I only walked up one of the hills, which I’d already run up twice before. My right knee was screaming at the end of that run, although I was surprised I did it so quickly. It reminded me again that at least part of the challenge of this distance running is mental. I need to remind myself that getting the distance done is important, not speed. I can walk if I need to, and I can stop to rest if I need to (and I did take a minute to drink some Gatorade after about 7k, before finishing the rest). I just need to get the distance in. That being said, this run felt longer and more difficult than any previous run, and I’m due to go even further next week!
Finally, we get to yesterday’s run, a 5k fun run. I started getting a sore throat on Friday night, and by Saturday, I had a sore throat and stuffy nose. But, I decided to try the run anyway, since I remember reading somewhere that it’s okay to run with a cold as long as all the symptoms are from the neck up, which they were. Also, I paid $13 to run, and it seemed a shame to waste the money. Well, all of last week had been warm and sunny, but yesterday was cloudy and cool. I wore crops, but I probably should’ve worn pants. I also wore my rain jacket that’s normally too hot, but wasn’t this time! Because the start was so close to my house, I decided to run there. My knee started to hurt almost immediately, and I got tired really quickly. Not the best confidence boosters! I decided to just get the run done, and not to worry about time, given the double strikes against me of sore knee and sickness.
My first set of running “swag”:
This is where the run was located:
Me, in all my pre-running sickness:
Getting ready for the run:
I took this picture, and it’s hard to see, because the woman in the wheelchair is smoking a cigarette, and you could smell it from a mile away:
This was probably the biggest run I’ve done yet, in terms of the number of fellow runners. It was a total jam at the start, and I spent a lot of time trying to get past the power walkers and slow runners. The course itself was fun, going through a couple of local parks, so I ran on wood chips for a bit, which were nicer on my knees than pavement. And I totally surprised myself by finishing just under 32 minutes, which was a personal best for me! I thought my time was 31:54, but the official time was 31:59, two whole seconds faster than my last 5k time of 32:01. I even won a water bottle and five free passes to the local recreation center!
And now we come to today, and I think I’m all caught up. I had to buy new running shoes today because I woke up last night with the worst foot pain on my right foot I’ve ever had, and I wonder if my shoes were to blame. It was almost like a foot cramp, but standing on it made it worse, and I couldn’t bear any weight on that foot without pain that made me want to cry out. It was a bit better this morning, and actually walking around downtown today made it almost go away. I don’t know if my shoes are just getting old and less supportive (they have about 400k on them) but just in case, I got new ones. If I don’t work tomorrow, I’ll take them for a test run, and see how they do.
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Posted in Running Marathon |
Tags: Crowded, knee injury, long run, racing, rain, RunKeeper, runners, Running |
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Distance: 4.82k Saturday, 4.96k today
Time: 34:52 Saturday, 34:23 today
You know those perfect runs, the ones where the weather is just right, and you feel like you could go forever? Today was not one of those runs. Today was one of those just-get-it-over-with runs, where I felt grumpy heading out and didn’t feel any better coming back. I know that part of it was that I had a bad day at work yesterday, and I just didn’t have the normal attitude I have when I run. Normally, I’m glad to get out of the house and push myself a bit, although my last two times have been a bit slow. I’m also usually feel much better after my run, but not today.
The weather went from cloudy to sunny with rain, and then a headwind picked up just before the last bit of my run. I know this didn’t help me feel any better, especially since my right knee also started to hurt near the end of the run. Again, it stopped hurting after my run, so I’m just waiting for it to go away (I hope).
On the good side, I got my new headphones yesterday, and they work well. They stay put in my ears, and sound good. I’m trying to figure out a place to put them so the cat won’t get at them, but also so that I won’t forget to bring them. Any suggestions?
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Posted in Running Marathon |
Tags: earphones, grumpy, knee injury, rain, Running, windy |
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Distance: 4.51k (plus how much I ran while RunKeeper was paused because my phone rang)
Time: 33:39 (plus about a minute while RunKeeper was paused)
Snuck in a last-minute run before it got too dark today. It wasn’t too windy, but it was drizzly and grey. I got to try out my new rain jacket, and I have to say I was less than thrilled with it. It was comfortable for the first part of the run, and it kept me dry from the rain, but by the end of my run, I felt like I was wearing a plastic bag. The sweat was a sheen down both arms, and I was way too warm. I took the jacket off on the drive home, and when I put it back on to go into the house, the inside of the sleeves were wet. Yuck. I’m beginning to wonder whether there is such a thing as a rain jacket that keeps the rain out but is not too hot, and is comfortable and nice-looking. Is that too much to ask?
I think that RunKeeper is working better now that I followed the email advice I got to delete the program and re-install it. It still didn’t display the first kilometer split properly, but I think that’s because my phone rang, which paused the program. I forgot that the phone ringing pauses the program so I ran for about a minute before resuming the program, which messed up my time and distance. My only complaint with the program now is that I set up a playlist of podcasts which RunKeeper doesn’t seem to acknowledge, so I’ll have to use the free version to listen to those during my run.
The best news of my run today is that my knee was only a bit sore, and it was better not long after my run. If it holds up, I’m going to try another run tomorrow, because then I go back to work. Speaking of, I’m waiting to hear about a job that I applied for, and not knowing is driving me nuts. I was hoping to hear by today, since the posting closed on Wednesday afternoon, but it looks like I won’t hear till Monday at the earliest. It’s gonna be a long couple of days!
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Distance: 9.83k
Time: 70:25
I’m way too tired from my run today, and my boys waking me up at 6:30 am to write a full post, so I’ll do a list of the good and not-so-good things that have happened run wise in the last two days.
Good:
- I now fit into my lululemon hoodies that I bought way before I got pregnant with my first son. They didn’t fit in between pregnancies, because I could never zip them up over my chest. Now they do, so I’ve been wearing them non-stop. I so missed them. Warm and cozy. When I Tweeted about this, the lululemon Twitter person actually Tweeted me back to congratulate me! Kinda cool.
- I beat my last 10k time on this route by about 2 minutes, although I did not beat my PR from the race last month.
- I’m closer to being back on track with my training plan. I was tired at the end, but from an energy standpoint, I probably could have kept going for another couple of kilometers.
Not so Good:
- I wrecked my knee. Call me stupid, or hardcore, or just plain stubborn, but I was absolutely determined to get the distance in today. My right knee was fine for the first half of the run, but it was screaming again by the end. And the pain radiated through my whole leg, so that my inner thigh was hurting at the end, too.
- I learned that when wearing short-sleeved shirts that I need to put my armband on the other way because the jack for my headphones rubbed the skin just below the elbow on my arm raw.
- RunKeeper totally messed up my splits on my iPhone so that the first 9k had 0 time and 0 distance, but my speed for the last kilometer was 1:19/km. Also it said I only burned 2 calories. Well, I guess if it took me an hour and twenty minutes to run one kilometer, I wouldn’t burn very many calories! Oddly, when I went to the website, my splits were on there for each kilometer, and they looked okay (http://bit.ly/9ZJffu).
So, I don’t know what to do about my knee. I refuse to even consider stopping running, and I really don’t want to even cut back too much, because the marathon isn’t that far away. I tried stretching it more after this run, and I plan to rest it tomorrow. I even considered an ice bath, although I didn’t do it. Any suggestions out there?
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Posted in Running Marathon |
Tags: armband, iPhone, knee injury, long run, lululemon, marathon, RunKeeper, Running |
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