5 miles today. 5! Somehow, this felt like a total victory. I mean, dealing with the shin splints and now therapy and the new training schedule sort of reinforcing a slow-down...but today was a five-miler. And not only that, but I got up extra early so I could go to Central Park and do the run before my therapy session. Now THAT is an indicator I'm finally getting back into marathon training mode. It was THAT kind of get-up-and-go that led to a very successful Staten Island Half last year.
The run itself was so-so. First three miles were pretty hard on the legs, but not terrible. I would not even say that those miles sucked. Legs got loose and warm for the last two miles, by which time my air-trapping had decided to make an appearance. But at least the run was steady and complete. Lots of stretching, of course, before and afer.
Running in Central Park can expose a runner to many new and unusual sights. I have a number of stories, but today's is one I'll remember: about mile four, I passed a woman coming the other way who was running in her bra. Not a sports bra, her regular white underwire, full-cup, thin-straps, lacy-edges bra. She was carrying her shirt. Other than that, completely normal serious runner look; body like a trained greyhound, smooth motion, all that. And nobody batted an eye.
I felt good enough about the run that I almost went out again after work. But errands beckoned and time is short: I couldn't skip the errands. So...six miles is on the plan for tomorrow with an easy 3, or some cross-training, for Sunday. Yeah, baby, this IS my bag!
June 30, 2006
June 28, 2006
The new training has begun
Well, according to my NYRR training calendar, yesterday was supposed to be an easy 3 miler and today was, believe it or not, a rest day. I suppose the lax routine of the first couple of weeks dovetails nicely with my need to cut back and get this shinsplints thing addressed, but it galls in a way. I know I'm stronger than this. I didn't actually run 3 miles yesterday, opting instead for a nice five-mile bike ride on semi-flat tires. (Way more work than I was expecting.) Cross-training is part of the schedule and until I had jiggered the numbers enough to get a training schedule I liked, the schedules I was beging offered all began with a cross-training day; so I went with that anyway.
Tomorrow I go see the therapist for the first time in several months. I am impatient to be fixed and running pain free. My lungs are in great shape right now and I don't want to squander it! But I have other major things going on in my life and I really just need something - one fucking thing - to be safe, predictable, and successful. If I can't count on a training program to give me that....then what?
And as for the expense of the program: sure, it's more expensive than some free resources which might do just as well. Heck, I still think my aborted five-month training program from last winter would be great. But a few things about the online thing appealed to me. First, the cost isn't actually all that much: pretty much the equivalent of four races. I'd spend as much or more for Hal Higdon's program, I think. Second, I just haven't found the time to sit down and structure a training program. Even something as simple as that task has been shunted in favor of other things that need doing. Third, I have NO IDEA what I'm doing with speed training; this program at least has some speed training built in in a structured way. And fourth: I've never trained with a watch before. Which is to say that all my training to this point has been based solely on mileage and perceived effort. If I wanted to hit a particular time in a race, I tried speed workouts that were "really hard running." But now I have the opportunity to do structured levels of paced runs, to learn what different paces actually feel like and to take advantage of the structured training to its utmost. Fifth, and not unimportant, I can't afford an actual coach, and this program is going to have to take the place of that. If I created my own schedule, my "coach" would be ME; but with this created schedule, the "coach" is an external force - MUCH easier to obey.
Now, if this rain would just go away and STAY the fuck away!
Tomorrow I go see the therapist for the first time in several months. I am impatient to be fixed and running pain free. My lungs are in great shape right now and I don't want to squander it! But I have other major things going on in my life and I really just need something - one fucking thing - to be safe, predictable, and successful. If I can't count on a training program to give me that....then what?
And as for the expense of the program: sure, it's more expensive than some free resources which might do just as well. Heck, I still think my aborted five-month training program from last winter would be great. But a few things about the online thing appealed to me. First, the cost isn't actually all that much: pretty much the equivalent of four races. I'd spend as much or more for Hal Higdon's program, I think. Second, I just haven't found the time to sit down and structure a training program. Even something as simple as that task has been shunted in favor of other things that need doing. Third, I have NO IDEA what I'm doing with speed training; this program at least has some speed training built in in a structured way. And fourth: I've never trained with a watch before. Which is to say that all my training to this point has been based solely on mileage and perceived effort. If I wanted to hit a particular time in a race, I tried speed workouts that were "really hard running." But now I have the opportunity to do structured levels of paced runs, to learn what different paces actually feel like and to take advantage of the structured training to its utmost. Fifth, and not unimportant, I can't afford an actual coach, and this program is going to have to take the place of that. If I created my own schedule, my "coach" would be ME; but with this created schedule, the "coach" is an external force - MUCH easier to obey.
Now, if this rain would just go away and STAY the fuck away!
June 26, 2006
I am trying not to panic
Is it ironic that I can have such painful runs with no day-after sorenss, yet the day after my one pain-free run, my legs are incredibly sore, like I'd done some kind of half-marathon race? Weird.
I went to the doctor today to see about these shin splints. I described the pain and the areas it happens: front, back, outer tibia. It didn't take him long: he pressed three points in rapid succession on the INSIDE of my tibia and on the second one, it was as if he'd pressed a button visible only to him, marked PAIN. "You're going to get some therapy," he said. "You've got tibial stress syndrome," by which he means shin splints, "and you're courting a stress fracture." Oh, great. Shin splints I knew, but I didn't know I could be breaking my own legs. OK, therapy it is then. I go in Thursday for my eval exam by the sports therapist.
He was not thrilled with the state of my orthotics. See, when leather gets wet, as these have gotten soaked twice, it tends to reshape itself - not helpful when they're supposed to be holding they're own shape and correcting my feet. So the doc glued some more foam onto the bottoms temporarily to correct my foot alignment. The orthotics will need attention from their maker, Dr. McNerny.
So I go look up shin splints and find this helpful page. Unfortunately, it makes me very nearly want to panic, as between the information there and the certain knowledge that the therapist will back it up - I should be reducing my mileage for awhile.
BUT I CAN'T! I've got a marathon to train for! I've been holding off on mileage 'til now (sometimes not my own choice, I admit) and need to get on the wagon dammit!
Even more frustrating, I immediately get an email from NYRR announcing the beginning of the online training program. Excited like a little boy, I signed up, having been assured by Beast that their program is a pretty good one, well worth the nominal fee.
And, indeed, the NYRR program does seem good. After some struggling with the browser, and learning that I'll need to do this through Firefox for the time being, I punched in my previous marathon time, my ability level, my goals....and it spit out a complete training schedule - that has me quite puzzled.
First, it starts with such an easy few weeks I nearly laughed. Even injured I should be doing more mileage than that. The long runs don't get back up to 8 miles for like two months! I'll have to remedy that; I CANNOT lose the conditioning I've got so far. Another oddity is that given the goal time - currently set at 4:15 for the marathon, which I feel is overreaching - the long runs and tempo runs are ridiculously slow paced, even up to a 12:20 per mile pace. Of course, the speedwork I asked for gets up to 6 repeats of 7-minute miles, so maybe I don't know as much as I thought I did. The bright and shining benefit of this customizable program is that it will remind/force me to expand my training options with some crosstraining days and more focused kinds of speedwork. I'm going to keep working the input numbers until I get a schedule that I'm comfortable with, including the first couple weeks having more than nine measly miles.
Of course... maybe I should take the computer's suggestions as a good idea, considering I'll be dealing with recovering from shin splints for the next six to eight weeks. I just wish there were a way to treat the shin splints, fix the orthotics, and continue to train UP all at the same time.
OH, one last thing. Congrats to Lora for completing her first triathlon!
[edit] OK, I think I've come across a decent training schedule by bluffing the numbers just a hair higher - numbers I would've been running in a week or two anyway. My training begins tomorrow with 3 miles. The first week is easy stuf. The schedule soon builds to running or cross-training six days a week, something I'm nervous about, but it is plain from other blogs that the truly dedicated are truly rewarded. The long runs build up very nearly on the schedule I'd originally laid out for Nashville, culminating with a 21 mile long run three weeks before the marathon. It all looks like a challenging, yet realistic, schedule.
I went to the doctor today to see about these shin splints. I described the pain and the areas it happens: front, back, outer tibia. It didn't take him long: he pressed three points in rapid succession on the INSIDE of my tibia and on the second one, it was as if he'd pressed a button visible only to him, marked PAIN. "You're going to get some therapy," he said. "You've got tibial stress syndrome," by which he means shin splints, "and you're courting a stress fracture." Oh, great. Shin splints I knew, but I didn't know I could be breaking my own legs. OK, therapy it is then. I go in Thursday for my eval exam by the sports therapist.
He was not thrilled with the state of my orthotics. See, when leather gets wet, as these have gotten soaked twice, it tends to reshape itself - not helpful when they're supposed to be holding they're own shape and correcting my feet. So the doc glued some more foam onto the bottoms temporarily to correct my foot alignment. The orthotics will need attention from their maker, Dr. McNerny.
So I go look up shin splints and find this helpful page. Unfortunately, it makes me very nearly want to panic, as between the information there and the certain knowledge that the therapist will back it up - I should be reducing my mileage for awhile.
BUT I CAN'T! I've got a marathon to train for! I've been holding off on mileage 'til now (sometimes not my own choice, I admit) and need to get on the wagon dammit!
Even more frustrating, I immediately get an email from NYRR announcing the beginning of the online training program. Excited like a little boy, I signed up, having been assured by Beast that their program is a pretty good one, well worth the nominal fee.
And, indeed, the NYRR program does seem good. After some struggling with the browser, and learning that I'll need to do this through Firefox for the time being, I punched in my previous marathon time, my ability level, my goals....and it spit out a complete training schedule - that has me quite puzzled.
First, it starts with such an easy few weeks I nearly laughed. Even injured I should be doing more mileage than that. The long runs don't get back up to 8 miles for like two months! I'll have to remedy that; I CANNOT lose the conditioning I've got so far. Another oddity is that given the goal time - currently set at 4:15 for the marathon, which I feel is overreaching - the long runs and tempo runs are ridiculously slow paced, even up to a 12:20 per mile pace. Of course, the speedwork I asked for gets up to 6 repeats of 7-minute miles, so maybe I don't know as much as I thought I did. The bright and shining benefit of this customizable program is that it will remind/force me to expand my training options with some crosstraining days and more focused kinds of speedwork. I'm going to keep working the input numbers until I get a schedule that I'm comfortable with, including the first couple weeks having more than nine measly miles.
Of course... maybe I should take the computer's suggestions as a good idea, considering I'll be dealing with recovering from shin splints for the next six to eight weeks. I just wish there were a way to treat the shin splints, fix the orthotics, and continue to train UP all at the same time.
OH, one last thing. Congrats to Lora for completing her first triathlon!
[edit] OK, I think I've come across a decent training schedule by bluffing the numbers just a hair higher - numbers I would've been running in a week or two anyway. My training begins tomorrow with 3 miles. The first week is easy stuf. The schedule soon builds to running or cross-training six days a week, something I'm nervous about, but it is plain from other blogs that the truly dedicated are truly rewarded. The long runs build up very nearly on the schedule I'd originally laid out for Nashville, culminating with a 21 mile long run three weeks before the marathon. It all looks like a challenging, yet realistic, schedule.
June 25, 2006
I Am Prudent, The Sequel
It's funny how the heat index at 74 degrees and 82% humidity puts the "real feel" at 74 degrees. Now I know where the zero-point is, I guess. Still, 82% humidity is, I feel, a low figure. It might be true right NOW, but I'd swear it was higher for most of today's run.
10 miles on the docket, 6.7 run. I cut one loop of the park out of my run due to the overwhelming humidity. I didn't get the run in yesterday and this morning I waited until it stopped raining, then tookt he train up to the park to do three loops. Hah! It was raining by the time I got to the transfer from the R to the F, so I turned around and went home instead. Lucky so: I ran into some of my neighbors and got permission to bring my architect by their house so I can point out some features I will want to have built into my house, when all that happens. I'm finding I really like my neighbors here.
Anyway, by the time we were finished chatting, the rain had let up again and things were humid, but cool - perhaps 70 or 72 degrees. No breeze at all. I decided to just run up to the park and do two loops and back, which would also be 10 miles. I grabbed a large water bottle of HEED and set out.
I decided about halfway up the hill to the park that 10 miles wasn't going to happen today. I could SEE the air; never a good sign. By the time I got to the park, I was ready to turn around right there and cut things short to 3.4 miles. But while I stretched a bit and got my breathing under control, seeing the other runners sort of inspired me to continue. The next 3.3 miles were difficult in the visible humidity, but not exactly hard. I did take it easy and slowed to a walk three or four times as my lungs demanded. At one point I was having some real problems - it wasn't the asthma, more like air trapping...I've not quite experienced the sudden distress in breathing like that before. I wasn't particularly worried, I just stopped completely for a minute and let my breathing work itself out. It felt like.... well, like you would feel trying to gulp in air after you've been underwater for three minutes, only you didn't let all your air out first, only halfway. You're trying to get air IN, but the bad air is still in there keeping you from getting satisfying lungfuls. Only it wasn't like an asthmatic air-trapping thing, because it came and went quickly.
Anyway, I got the loop done and headed for home. The downhill was a blessed relief, but by this time the sun had decided to try to break out and the temperature ratcheted up five degrees in a hurry. Sweat was pouring off me and by the time I got home, my clothes and hair were quite damp and I'd drained my bottle of HEED - a good signal that cutting the run short today was probably the wise thing to do. Under less humid conitions, that bottle will last 10 miles easy.
Anyhow, I want to point out that it was ONLY my lungs I had a hard time with today. I did the rest of things right, including hydration, fueling, Enduralyte intake, foam rolling (to which I've added lint-rolling my shins), stretching, and icing the knees and drinking Recoverite after the run. The upshot is that my legs felt fine. In fact, better than fine, they performed well, never got very tense during my coughing, didn't tighten up during walk breaks, and generally played ball. And no pain. Aside from minor twinges on the inside and outside of knees that lasted less than 1/4 mile each, I had NO PAIN. Certainly no shin pain! And for that, I will say this run, though cut short, earns itself a "good" rating.
And now, I really must take a shower.
10 miles on the docket, 6.7 run. I cut one loop of the park out of my run due to the overwhelming humidity. I didn't get the run in yesterday and this morning I waited until it stopped raining, then tookt he train up to the park to do three loops. Hah! It was raining by the time I got to the transfer from the R to the F, so I turned around and went home instead. Lucky so: I ran into some of my neighbors and got permission to bring my architect by their house so I can point out some features I will want to have built into my house, when all that happens. I'm finding I really like my neighbors here.
Anyway, by the time we were finished chatting, the rain had let up again and things were humid, but cool - perhaps 70 or 72 degrees. No breeze at all. I decided to just run up to the park and do two loops and back, which would also be 10 miles. I grabbed a large water bottle of HEED and set out.
I decided about halfway up the hill to the park that 10 miles wasn't going to happen today. I could SEE the air; never a good sign. By the time I got to the park, I was ready to turn around right there and cut things short to 3.4 miles. But while I stretched a bit and got my breathing under control, seeing the other runners sort of inspired me to continue. The next 3.3 miles were difficult in the visible humidity, but not exactly hard. I did take it easy and slowed to a walk three or four times as my lungs demanded. At one point I was having some real problems - it wasn't the asthma, more like air trapping...I've not quite experienced the sudden distress in breathing like that before. I wasn't particularly worried, I just stopped completely for a minute and let my breathing work itself out. It felt like.... well, like you would feel trying to gulp in air after you've been underwater for three minutes, only you didn't let all your air out first, only halfway. You're trying to get air IN, but the bad air is still in there keeping you from getting satisfying lungfuls. Only it wasn't like an asthmatic air-trapping thing, because it came and went quickly.
Anyway, I got the loop done and headed for home. The downhill was a blessed relief, but by this time the sun had decided to try to break out and the temperature ratcheted up five degrees in a hurry. Sweat was pouring off me and by the time I got home, my clothes and hair were quite damp and I'd drained my bottle of HEED - a good signal that cutting the run short today was probably the wise thing to do. Under less humid conitions, that bottle will last 10 miles easy.
Anyhow, I want to point out that it was ONLY my lungs I had a hard time with today. I did the rest of things right, including hydration, fueling, Enduralyte intake, foam rolling (to which I've added lint-rolling my shins), stretching, and icing the knees and drinking Recoverite after the run. The upshot is that my legs felt fine. In fact, better than fine, they performed well, never got very tense during my coughing, didn't tighten up during walk breaks, and generally played ball. And no pain. Aside from minor twinges on the inside and outside of knees that lasted less than 1/4 mile each, I had NO PAIN. Certainly no shin pain! And for that, I will say this run, though cut short, earns itself a "good" rating.
And now, I really must take a shower.
June 24, 2006
I am prudent
Well, I did NOT go do the race this morning; I didn't run at all. I'd posted somewhere else that I was going to the race unless it was raining and that's what happened. I got up at 6, intending to be at the park by 7:30 or 8, to put in five miles before the race, but it was raining as I stepped out the door. Not hard, to be sure, but enough to give me second thoughts. I really don't want to do a long run in the rain right now. I'm tired from yesterday, which started at 4 a.m. for me and didn't end 'til almost midnight and I didn't eat like I should've. In short, I don't want to court getting injured or sick because I'm too tired and the weather is getting me soaked and slowing me down.
I went back to bed, but did check the weather again at about 8, because if it had cleared up a bit, I would've gone to the race and done my second five miles after the race...still raining. And though it looked like the rain had stopped when I got out of bed again a half hour ago...it is once again raining. The humidity at all times has been killer. Tomorrow is supposed to be a tad cooler and a tad less humid, even between showers.
I'm content to let the rain come. I've got all weekend to find the time to put in ten miles and it is probably better to do it all as one non-race chunk after getting good rest. I have plenty to do in the meantime.
I went back to bed, but did check the weather again at about 8, because if it had cleared up a bit, I would've gone to the race and done my second five miles after the race...still raining. And though it looked like the rain had stopped when I got out of bed again a half hour ago...it is once again raining. The humidity at all times has been killer. Tomorrow is supposed to be a tad cooler and a tad less humid, even between showers.
I'm content to let the rain come. I've got all weekend to find the time to put in ten miles and it is probably better to do it all as one non-race chunk after getting good rest. I have plenty to do in the meantime.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)