Running Chick

Somebody stop me, I do dumb things.

I’ve been feeling a little discomfort in my shins lately, nothing major and completely kept under control by icing & Advil, but it’s there. The other day I got to thinking that maybe I should try my custom orthotics on a run just to see how my legs feel. So, I did.  Now, this wasn’t necessarily a dumb idea per se, but completely ignoring that these custom orthotics gave me such bad knee pain that they knocked me out of consistent running for almost a year, was stupid.

The first mile of my four mile run was kind of promising. No shin pain, no other issues. The next quarter mile, my shins started to ache and by a half mile they were pissed off. I stopped, stretched for a bit and took off again, but I didn’t get too far and had to stop again. I thought about walking back to my house, but decided to take out the insoles and see how that went. The pain went away by probably 50%, and I considered finishing my full run, but for once, I listened to what my body was telling me and ended with three.

I’ve been icing both shins for 20-30 minutes every 1-1/2 to 2 hours and I think I’d downgrade them from pissed off to aggravated. Fingers crossed that they’re okay for my long run on Saturday.

Anyhoo, I decided that I need to add some hill training to my regime so on Tuesday, I sent out to do four miles of hills. I wasn’t interested in doing sprint repeats, I wanted some mid-length upward grinds with some downhill recovery and I found my perfect loop on Jacker Avenue.

The loop (square, more like) is about .8 of a mile long, the first .4 mile (starting at the corner of Jacker & Military) is uphill, the next .2 is flat and the last .2 is downhill.  I did about a mile warm-up and then did the Jacker –> Dodge –> Frue –> Military Road loop three times. It’s a pretty steady half-mile climb from Jacker to Frue and I struggled and stopped once for a few seconds on the first loop and once again on the second loop.

I forgot to press the lap button on my Garmin on each loop, but thanks to my handy dandy SportTracks program, I was able to estimate that I did the first loop in 10:19, the second loop in 10:16 and the last loop in 10:08. I would love to take all the credit for the time on that last loop, but there was some extra downhill in there as I made my way back to my house. I imagine the actual time was slower than the second loop because I could feel myself running out of steam toward the end.

Here’s the elevation profile. It looks ickier than it actually was, but I felt like I got in a really good workout.

I haven’t decided if I want to add hill training to my weekly schedule yet, though. Now that I’m getting into bigger mileage weeks, I’m a little bit scared of overloading my legs and getting injured.

Didn't it involve stuff like drinking copious amounts of beer, eating copious amounts of food and doing copious amounts of nothing?

When did it evolve into an all-out fitness bonanza?

Friday: 10 mile run; 2 mile canoe

After a good run a few days earlier, I decided that I would try to get in a long run just to see how my legs would handle it.  I was secretly hoping for 12 miles but I decided that if I got to 10, I’d be happy.

It turns out that 10 was about all my legs could take after making the mistake of taking the route with the biggest hills in the area. 

Check out the elevation profile:

Up, down, up, down, up, down, UGH.  The tendonitis didn’t bother me at all, but my quads and hamstrings pretty much started screaming bloody murder around mile 8.  I pushed through to 10 and ended at the park looking and feeling like hell.  Afterwards, I took an ice bath/waded around in Lake Gogebic for 30 minutes or so and my legs felt as good as new.

I wasn’t terribly pleased with my pacing (11:21) , but considering all the hills it could have been worse.  But bonus, I was able to make it up each hill without stopping, which is a personal victory in itself.

Later that evening, Josh and I canoed our way down to the local tavern and celebrated our first day of vacation with a few pints.

Saturday: 18.50 mile bike

I averaged 15.1 mph on this down-and-back route, which is pretty fast for me.  I almost didn’t make that because there’s a long gradual climb about four miles from the finish that knocked me down under 15 and I really had to grind away to get my speed back.

Sunday: 50.25 mile bike

aka The Big Ride.  Last year when I rode 50 for the first time, I almost died.  This year, I felt so good when I completed my lake loop (38.5 miles) I decided to push onward to the big 50.  It probably wasn’t the best idea to stop for an hour and have a couple of beers and bar food before the last 12 miles (THANKS JOSH :-/), but it only took 10 miles for my legs to loosen up. :-)  Except for feeling the need to eat every damn thing in the camper when I got back, I felt great afterward.  And, I’m happy to report that my average speed was 14.9.

I did another lake loop later that night with Josh as we did our annual Lake Gogebic bar crawl.  I was significantly slower that time around. 

Monday: 3.00 mile run; 3.75 mile canoe

This was my back-on-schedule run after being off my official schedule for the last two weeks.  My legs felt a bit heavy from the previous day’s ride so it was a bit of a struggle, but I didn’t have any tendonitis pain.  That’s two pain-free runs in a row, for those of you keeping track.  Am I cured?  Who knows.  All I know is that it didn’t hurt.  I’m going to pick up my schedule and see how things turn out.

Later in the morning, Josh and I canoed a few miles down the Slate River.  We got lots of pictures of critters and other things along the river.  There’s lots of pictures in the gallery.

So, that boils down to:

13 miles of running; 70+ (including the three 4+ miles of cruiser rides down to the store) miles of biking and 5 miles of canoeing. 

Whew, I need a vacation from my vacation.

It's been over a month since I last ran, thanks to the cold/sinus infection/ear infection thing I was plagued with for most of December.

Today's whopping two mile (Woo!!1!) run was slow, but it still felt good to finally get back on track.  The first mile or so was flat & decending, then I stepped my way up the hills back home.  Up a block, run a block, up a block, run a block.  I did four repeats.  In retrospect, I probably should have waited until I had a week or two base built up before I started punishing myself with hills, but oh wells.  No pain, no gain.  Sorry about the cliche.

 The weather was a balmy 24 degrees with a slight wind.

For some reason which I have yet to determine, my Sport Tracks report refuses to show the route line on the course map using Firefox.  It seems to work fine in IE.  That's so aggravating.  So, I'm going to start using mapmyrun.com for my route maps, and Sport Tracks for the rest of the particulars.  This is going to cause some double-duty for me, but at least I'll be able to see my own maps in my own blag!

 Here's the report of my stellar 2-miler and the map:

In other news, I seem to have acquired a slight lower back strain which I can only assume is due to heaving snow around yesterday. My lower back is really achy. It's not bothered by running, but it's making itself known all other times. Hope this doesn't last for long, it's a real pain.