I mentioned that I was walking once a week with my friend in accounting. This was our fourth week in a row, and she went 2.27 miles in 42 minutes. It included 3 minutes of running at the end -- the first 2 minutes were at 4.5 mph, and then the last minute was at 4.8 mph.
I think next week we're going to do running at the end again, but not the very end. I don't think it was good for her to run and then come to a dead stop. So next week, we'll run, and then slow back down to a walk for the final few minutes.
She was literally shaking when we were stretching and leaving the gym, but she was smiling ear to ear, saying she couldn't believe she was still alive and that she'd done it.
So excited for her!
Think we're going to make sure she gets registered for the race next week!
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Wind gusts over 40 mph and I'm getting out there
Have you ever heard of a major city airport canceling 150 flights because of WIND? Well, that was the case Monday night into Tuesday morning in Dallas.
Coincidentally, it was when a huge cold front blew in AND I had my first morning working with my speed coach.
Ugh. Talk about not wanting to get out of bed! I could hear the wind going over our roof and pounding our windows and porch.
But my lactate threshold test on Sunday reminded me that I have A LOT of work to do before Sept. 29 if I really want to achieve my dream marathon PR in Berlin. A LOT. As in my current 30 minute mile pace at an all-out effort isn't significantly faster than what I want/need to be my marathon pace. I mentioned to a friend after the LT test that I'm worried my goal is a bit unrealistic, and he wisely said, give it 6 weeks of speed training and then reevaluate.
So I need to be giving it my all right now.
I got out of bed and went to meet my coach to run hills in weather that was 40 degrees, but sustained wind speeds of 25-35 mph, gusting over 40.
Dear god, why?
I did it though. Ran my hills, felt like death, finished the scheduled workout. Our coach sent an email later in the day -- "I haven’t received any thank you emails for this morning’s workout and weather combination." Hahahaha!
Got home, ate breakfast and had to head back out in it to go to work.
I was so tempted to drive instead of running to work. There have been a few mornings I've wanted to drive lately, but my car had been at the office, so it wasn't an option. But yesterday my car was right there, sitting in our garage, keys on the hook. So tempting! But that's not going to help me reach my goal, so I sucked it up and ran to work.
It was one of my slowest commutes ever, but that's per coach's orders -- trying to keep my heart rate in the bottom zone the whole time, not worrying about pacing.
Fortunately, when I set back out in the great outdoors to go to work, it was a few degrees warmer and the wind advisory had expired, but it was still windy and cold.
One of the things I like about being an outdoor runner is that I feel so much more connected with the seasons, the outdoors, and the weather, but this commuting thing is taking that to a whole new level. I'm spending a lot of time obsessing about the weather.
Trying to make sure I make the right clothing decisions for a 5:15 group run, an 8:00 solo commute, a 6:00 pm indoor treadmill walk, and a 6:45 solo commute home. That was my Tuesday.
Let the record reflect that in the last week of February 2013, "Carina" appears to have finally mastered how to dress for winter running in Dallas.
Of course, I master this lesson every single year at some point, only to apparently have to relearn it every single year.
Coincidentally, it was when a huge cold front blew in AND I had my first morning working with my speed coach.
Ugh. Talk about not wanting to get out of bed! I could hear the wind going over our roof and pounding our windows and porch.
But my lactate threshold test on Sunday reminded me that I have A LOT of work to do before Sept. 29 if I really want to achieve my dream marathon PR in Berlin. A LOT. As in my current 30 minute mile pace at an all-out effort isn't significantly faster than what I want/need to be my marathon pace. I mentioned to a friend after the LT test that I'm worried my goal is a bit unrealistic, and he wisely said, give it 6 weeks of speed training and then reevaluate.
So I need to be giving it my all right now.
I got out of bed and went to meet my coach to run hills in weather that was 40 degrees, but sustained wind speeds of 25-35 mph, gusting over 40.
Dear god, why?
I did it though. Ran my hills, felt like death, finished the scheduled workout. Our coach sent an email later in the day -- "I haven’t received any thank you emails for this morning’s workout and weather combination." Hahahaha!
Got home, ate breakfast and had to head back out in it to go to work.
I was so tempted to drive instead of running to work. There have been a few mornings I've wanted to drive lately, but my car had been at the office, so it wasn't an option. But yesterday my car was right there, sitting in our garage, keys on the hook. So tempting! But that's not going to help me reach my goal, so I sucked it up and ran to work.
It was one of my slowest commutes ever, but that's per coach's orders -- trying to keep my heart rate in the bottom zone the whole time, not worrying about pacing.
Fortunately, when I set back out in the great outdoors to go to work, it was a few degrees warmer and the wind advisory had expired, but it was still windy and cold.
One of the things I like about being an outdoor runner is that I feel so much more connected with the seasons, the outdoors, and the weather, but this commuting thing is taking that to a whole new level. I'm spending a lot of time obsessing about the weather.
Trying to make sure I make the right clothing decisions for a 5:15 group run, an 8:00 solo commute, a 6:00 pm indoor treadmill walk, and a 6:45 solo commute home. That was my Tuesday.
Let the record reflect that in the last week of February 2013, "Carina" appears to have finally mastered how to dress for winter running in Dallas.
Of course, I master this lesson every single year at some point, only to apparently have to relearn it every single year.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Anatomy lesson
So I spent most of my free time researching a muscle previously unknown to me -- the posterior tibialis!
You know that's a bad sign. There's pretty much only one reason runners look up muscles on the internet... it hurts.
My most searched post ever on this blog is the one about your soleus muscle.
Anyway, here's a fun picture of the posterior tibialis:
(copied from Wikipedia.)
If you look closely at that picture (the posterior tibialis is in red), you'll see that in the upper part of your calf, it's under some other muscles (including my good friend, the soleus), but you can see that eventually it stretches down and toward the inside of your arch, where it becomes the posterior tibialis tendon, and is pretty much the key muscle in supporting your arch, and in plantar flexing and inverting your foot in general.
I seem to be prone to calf problems and I know it. Every time something in my calf hurts, I swear that I'm going to work on doing little strengthening exercises (like calf raises) year round. In fact, I think I even promised myself several years ago that I'd add them to my routine permanently. And then the pain goes away, I keep up the calf raises for a couple weeks, then they fall by the way side again. Until the next time my calf hurts.
So my calf injury history:
In Sept. 2007, about two weeks before the Chicago marathon, I had an injury in my gastrocnemius.
In the summer 2010, it was plantar fasciitis (starting with sore feet for my very first post on this blog, deciding to go to the doc, and then recovering, and really recovering (including what I did to get over it) a few months later).
In the fall 2010, it was general calf pain, thought to be my gastroc again.
In winter 2010-2011, it was biceps femoris pain.
In early 2011, it was hamstrings, and then undiagnosed upper left calf pain, both times the pains went away on their own with no real treatment.
In August 2011, as you can see, it was my soleus.
Last year, I had some brief pain in my peroneus lungus tendon.
So yeah, quite the history of calf and leg pains. Why do I run again? Oh, that's right, I eat like a 14 year old boy, as my husband puts it.
The soleus pain has repeated intermittently ever since it started, but it's never been serious. In fact, I don't think I've ever been in a position where I thought it was better to stop running for even a couple days.
The good news is, the calf pains move around. It's not always my left leg or something (though the current posterior tibialis pain is in my left leg).
Sunday, as I mentioned, we had to do a lactate threshold test. What that meant in practice was warming up for a couple miles, then running a total of 30 minutes as hard as possible. The critical point was that the auto-mile timer on your watch had to be off, and you mark a lap split after the first 10 minutes.
It leaves you with two laps for the 30 minutes -- the first 10 minutes, and then the remaining 20 minutes. Our coach looks at your average heartrate for the last 20 minutes as being your lactate threshold. And the mile pace for the entire 30 minutes as being your approximate lactate threshold pace.
During the 30 minutes, you're basically running solo. Occasionally being passed or passing, and hearing and saying words of encouragement, but basically all to yourself.
And pretty much everything hurt at some point doing those 30 minutes. First it was my feet. I was worried I'd pulled something in one of my feet, then in the other foot, then it didn't hurt anymore and it was my shoulders. Then the pain was in my lower back, then in my quads, then in my calves, then I was worried about peeing myself, then there was pain in my neck, then in my quads again. It was pretty much a constant stream of misery for 30 minutes. And you just have to tell yourself to keep going because the only thing worse than all that hurting would be to have to repeat the exercise. Even easing up isn't an option because then your numbers will be disappointing low/slow.
Anyway, at no point during the 30 minutes do I remember any sharp pain in my posterior tibialis.
We finally finished the 30 minutes and basically all stood around gasping for breath and stretching a bit. Then we did a cool-down jog of 2 miles at an easy pace. And about one mile into that jog, I definitely felt it.
I mistakenly thought it was pain in my Achilles tendon. That's a relatively new one for me. But it hurt. I was able to finish the jog and didn't feel like I had to change my gait or anything, but I knew it was the start of something.
Better belief I was on a chiro's table that same morning (not an easy feat on a Sunday) (haha, feat/feet, oh, too funny). He did a lot of foot and ankle rolling and moving and pressing, and lots of poking and rubbing on my calf, and then all of a sudden, he found it.
For me, it's apparently a very mild case of inflammation at this point. The pain is on the bottom third of my calf, on the inside between my calf and my shin.
So he suggested I take it easy for a day or two and watch it, icing as needed.
There seems to be very little pain today, 24+ hours later. I went to boot camp this morning, but opted out of the running just to avoid aggravating it.
We shall see where this goes, but wanted to share my new muscle knowledge with everyone. Hopefully this is just the first pain of the year, and it will go away as quickly as it came on.
I have a running friend who went to nursing school and said she felt like she had a huge leg up (haha, leg up, oh, I'm killing myself with these jokes!) when it came to studying the leg muscles since she'd either injured (and learned) most of them herself, or had heard about injuries from friends.
You know that's a bad sign. There's pretty much only one reason runners look up muscles on the internet... it hurts.
My most searched post ever on this blog is the one about your soleus muscle.
Anyway, here's a fun picture of the posterior tibialis:
(copied from Wikipedia.)
If you look closely at that picture (the posterior tibialis is in red), you'll see that in the upper part of your calf, it's under some other muscles (including my good friend, the soleus), but you can see that eventually it stretches down and toward the inside of your arch, where it becomes the posterior tibialis tendon, and is pretty much the key muscle in supporting your arch, and in plantar flexing and inverting your foot in general.
I seem to be prone to calf problems and I know it. Every time something in my calf hurts, I swear that I'm going to work on doing little strengthening exercises (like calf raises) year round. In fact, I think I even promised myself several years ago that I'd add them to my routine permanently. And then the pain goes away, I keep up the calf raises for a couple weeks, then they fall by the way side again. Until the next time my calf hurts.
So my calf injury history:
In Sept. 2007, about two weeks before the Chicago marathon, I had an injury in my gastrocnemius.
In the summer 2010, it was plantar fasciitis (starting with sore feet for my very first post on this blog, deciding to go to the doc, and then recovering, and really recovering (including what I did to get over it) a few months later).
In the fall 2010, it was general calf pain, thought to be my gastroc again.
In winter 2010-2011, it was biceps femoris pain.
In early 2011, it was hamstrings, and then undiagnosed upper left calf pain, both times the pains went away on their own with no real treatment.
In August 2011, as you can see, it was my soleus.
Last year, I had some brief pain in my peroneus lungus tendon.
So yeah, quite the history of calf and leg pains. Why do I run again? Oh, that's right, I eat like a 14 year old boy, as my husband puts it.
The soleus pain has repeated intermittently ever since it started, but it's never been serious. In fact, I don't think I've ever been in a position where I thought it was better to stop running for even a couple days.
The good news is, the calf pains move around. It's not always my left leg or something (though the current posterior tibialis pain is in my left leg).
Sunday, as I mentioned, we had to do a lactate threshold test. What that meant in practice was warming up for a couple miles, then running a total of 30 minutes as hard as possible. The critical point was that the auto-mile timer on your watch had to be off, and you mark a lap split after the first 10 minutes.
It leaves you with two laps for the 30 minutes -- the first 10 minutes, and then the remaining 20 minutes. Our coach looks at your average heartrate for the last 20 minutes as being your lactate threshold. And the mile pace for the entire 30 minutes as being your approximate lactate threshold pace.
During the 30 minutes, you're basically running solo. Occasionally being passed or passing, and hearing and saying words of encouragement, but basically all to yourself.
And pretty much everything hurt at some point doing those 30 minutes. First it was my feet. I was worried I'd pulled something in one of my feet, then in the other foot, then it didn't hurt anymore and it was my shoulders. Then the pain was in my lower back, then in my quads, then in my calves, then I was worried about peeing myself, then there was pain in my neck, then in my quads again. It was pretty much a constant stream of misery for 30 minutes. And you just have to tell yourself to keep going because the only thing worse than all that hurting would be to have to repeat the exercise. Even easing up isn't an option because then your numbers will be disappointing low/slow.
Anyway, at no point during the 30 minutes do I remember any sharp pain in my posterior tibialis.
We finally finished the 30 minutes and basically all stood around gasping for breath and stretching a bit. Then we did a cool-down jog of 2 miles at an easy pace. And about one mile into that jog, I definitely felt it.
I mistakenly thought it was pain in my Achilles tendon. That's a relatively new one for me. But it hurt. I was able to finish the jog and didn't feel like I had to change my gait or anything, but I knew it was the start of something.
Better belief I was on a chiro's table that same morning (not an easy feat on a Sunday) (haha, feat/feet, oh, too funny). He did a lot of foot and ankle rolling and moving and pressing, and lots of poking and rubbing on my calf, and then all of a sudden, he found it.
For me, it's apparently a very mild case of inflammation at this point. The pain is on the bottom third of my calf, on the inside between my calf and my shin.
So he suggested I take it easy for a day or two and watch it, icing as needed.
There seems to be very little pain today, 24+ hours later. I went to boot camp this morning, but opted out of the running just to avoid aggravating it.
We shall see where this goes, but wanted to share my new muscle knowledge with everyone. Hopefully this is just the first pain of the year, and it will go away as quickly as it came on.
I have a running friend who went to nursing school and said she felt like she had a huge leg up (haha, leg up, oh, I'm killing myself with these jokes!) when it came to studying the leg muscles since she'd either injured (and learned) most of them herself, or had heard about injuries from friends.
Monday, February 25, 2013
FMM: Q&A
My weekend was remarkably uneventful. Waaaaay too much time playing sudoku. But I managed to make a lovely "winter vegetable risotto" for dinner one night (recipe from a cookbook that I've had for years but am rediscovering, 1,0001 Low Fat Vegetarian Recipes). And I did run as hard as I could for a lactate threshold test on Sunday morning -- that was horrible, and I wanted to die, but I did it -- ran hard for all 30 minutes. Let's just say that I have a lot of work to do before Berlin.
If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!
1. Did you watch the Oscars? If so, who did you enjoy seeing most? No, I watched a little of the red carpet coverage while I was making that risotto, but we had people come over at 6:30 for dinner, so we turned off the TV when the doorbell rang.
2. Do you drink meal replacement shakes, smoothies, etc? If so, what’s your favorite kind? I don't think of them as meal replacements, but I guess they are. I drink a smoothie for breakfast at least Monday-Thursday, frequently about 5-7 days per week. I put in it: spinach, chia seeds, frozen fruit, soy milk, and Vega protein powder (usually berry flavored, sometimes vanilla or plain).
3. Share one thing you have done to help someone in the last week? I got my coworker to run for 2 minutes on a treadmill, the first time she said she'd ever run (I insisted that could not be true, everyone runs, if nothing else, as children; she conceded it was the first time she'd run in more years than she could count).
4. What is the tastiest thing you ate last week? Tough call -- I made a delicious risotto last night, but hubby brought me a Freebirds burrito for dinner on Thursday night (somewhat like Chipotle but a Texas chain, and I prefer it), and we had leftovers from last Sunday night's dinner -- an eggplant orzo dish and a cauliflower soup (both great), AND I have been hooked on eating tacos lately with refried beans, cheese, olives and salsa -- not high quality but tasty. The question is the tasties thing. I think I'm voting for the risotto. And we have leftovers, so that will be good.
5. Think of one fun thing that you could do this week without spending any money to do it. Very tough question! Walking with my co-worker or running with my friends. I think I'll do both! But I guess I spent money on running shoes...
6. Share one place that you’ve been to and would like to visit again. Chiang Mai, Thailand. I counted it as one of my favorite places ever, and I'd love to go there with my husband and see if he loves it as much as I did.
7. Do you prefer Facebook or Twitter? Neither. I've never been on twitter, and I've been basically off Facebook since Jan. 1 (I occasionally will get on to check emails, or to pull up contact info for someone, and once to check race results for a bunch of friends, but pretty much logging in less than twice a month now).
8. What is your favorite vegetable? Easy peasy. Peas! They have been my favorite vegetable as long as I can remember. From age 5 until sometime in law school (whenever the last time is that I was home with my folks for my bday), I chose for my birthday dinner steak and peas (originally with macaroni and cheese too, then that was replaced by baked potatoes). And of course now I'd drop the steak and probably have mac and cheese AND baked potatoes. But the peas have been a constant. I can eat an entire huge bag of frozen peas in a single sitting. It's scary. I either eat them plain, with pepper, or with butter. And pretty much love all three ways equally.
9. Share a goal that you have for the month of March. No sweets -- I gave up sweets for Lent and then promptly forgot twice in the first week. A cookie on Ash Wednesday and a chocolate croissant (or three) at a race that Saturday. But I am planning to eat sweets once or maybe twice in March (I'm counting them as my Sundays). First at a dinner party on March 1 that we are hosting, and then maybe when my bro and his wife are visiting. I also want to work very hard on my running -- possibly the hardest I've worked in years.
10. Share a quote that inspires you. "It never gets easier, you just get better."
Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions! Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments! Happy Monday!
If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!
Questions and Answers
1. Did you watch the Oscars? If so, who did you enjoy seeing most? No, I watched a little of the red carpet coverage while I was making that risotto, but we had people come over at 6:30 for dinner, so we turned off the TV when the doorbell rang.
2. Do you drink meal replacement shakes, smoothies, etc? If so, what’s your favorite kind? I don't think of them as meal replacements, but I guess they are. I drink a smoothie for breakfast at least Monday-Thursday, frequently about 5-7 days per week. I put in it: spinach, chia seeds, frozen fruit, soy milk, and Vega protein powder (usually berry flavored, sometimes vanilla or plain).
3. Share one thing you have done to help someone in the last week? I got my coworker to run for 2 minutes on a treadmill, the first time she said she'd ever run (I insisted that could not be true, everyone runs, if nothing else, as children; she conceded it was the first time she'd run in more years than she could count).
4. What is the tastiest thing you ate last week? Tough call -- I made a delicious risotto last night, but hubby brought me a Freebirds burrito for dinner on Thursday night (somewhat like Chipotle but a Texas chain, and I prefer it), and we had leftovers from last Sunday night's dinner -- an eggplant orzo dish and a cauliflower soup (both great), AND I have been hooked on eating tacos lately with refried beans, cheese, olives and salsa -- not high quality but tasty. The question is the tasties thing. I think I'm voting for the risotto. And we have leftovers, so that will be good.
5. Think of one fun thing that you could do this week without spending any money to do it. Very tough question! Walking with my co-worker or running with my friends. I think I'll do both! But I guess I spent money on running shoes...
6. Share one place that you’ve been to and would like to visit again. Chiang Mai, Thailand. I counted it as one of my favorite places ever, and I'd love to go there with my husband and see if he loves it as much as I did.
7. Do you prefer Facebook or Twitter? Neither. I've never been on twitter, and I've been basically off Facebook since Jan. 1 (I occasionally will get on to check emails, or to pull up contact info for someone, and once to check race results for a bunch of friends, but pretty much logging in less than twice a month now).
8. What is your favorite vegetable? Easy peasy. Peas! They have been my favorite vegetable as long as I can remember. From age 5 until sometime in law school (whenever the last time is that I was home with my folks for my bday), I chose for my birthday dinner steak and peas (originally with macaroni and cheese too, then that was replaced by baked potatoes). And of course now I'd drop the steak and probably have mac and cheese AND baked potatoes. But the peas have been a constant. I can eat an entire huge bag of frozen peas in a single sitting. It's scary. I either eat them plain, with pepper, or with butter. And pretty much love all three ways equally.
9. Share a goal that you have for the month of March. No sweets -- I gave up sweets for Lent and then promptly forgot twice in the first week. A cookie on Ash Wednesday and a chocolate croissant (or three) at a race that Saturday. But I am planning to eat sweets once or maybe twice in March (I'm counting them as my Sundays). First at a dinner party on March 1 that we are hosting, and then maybe when my bro and his wife are visiting. I also want to work very hard on my running -- possibly the hardest I've worked in years.
10. Share a quote that inspires you. "It never gets easier, you just get better."
Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions! Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments! Happy Monday!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)