Statistics:
Distance: 3 miles
Time: 33:35
Observations:
Since my foot was hurting with the old inserts, on Saturday I went back to Fleet Feet and got re-assessed and ended up getting new shoes and less extreme inserts. So I decided to take them out for a test drive last night. During the day yesterday, I was thinking six miles, but at night I decided that four would be a little smarter for my first run in two weeks. The extra two miles wouldn't do that much for me, and might just make things worse. So I aimed for four miles. After two, my stomach was cramping up, I think from late lunch/early dinner, so I decided to cut my run to 3 miles.
My feet felt pretty good. My foot isn't 100% better yet, but I just couldn't stand to sit around anymore. Of course, I had an old blister on my big toe that wasn't quite healed, apparently, and the run re-aggravated it. I swear, if it's not one thing, it's another. I hope that heals quickly. Neosporin and band-aids to the rescue!
In other news, I signed up for the October 31st running of the Monster Half Marathon! It sounds like a lot of fun, and a good bridge to keep me in shape as I transition to training for February's Mardi Gras Marathon!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
I haven't disappeared
I'm not being lazy about blogging. It's just that I haven't run since the half-marathon.
I was feeling good after about a week and was ready to start back, and then my foot started hurting, in the heel. I haven't been doing anything strenuous, just the walking that's required to get through the day. But the front part of my heel, where it meets the arch of my foot hurts now and then, kind of like a bruise, but there's no bruise visible.
So I am waiting for that to go away before I start back. It's one month until the second half-marathon, so there's still time to get some good training in, but I want to not hurt my foot any more before the race.
Sucks!
I was feeling good after about a week and was ready to start back, and then my foot started hurting, in the heel. I haven't been doing anything strenuous, just the walking that's required to get through the day. But the front part of my heel, where it meets the arch of my foot hurts now and then, kind of like a bruise, but there's no bruise visible.
So I am waiting for that to go away before I start back. It's one month until the second half-marathon, so there's still time to get some good training in, but I want to not hurt my foot any more before the race.
Sucks!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon
Statistics:
Distance: 13.1 miles
Time: 2:46:33
Observations:
Well, my goal was to finish, and I did. After missing almost a month of my training because of my foot injury, I knew that I was going to have to revise my time estimate and goals for the race, so really, my intention was to finish. I knew that I was going to have to push myself, and that the prudent thing to do would be not to run, but I made a decision that I wanted to do it, so I did.
On Sundays, the brown line starts running at 5:00 AM, so there wasn't any need to get up earlier than 4:30. I'd arranged all my clothes and gear the day before, so I wouldn't be scrambling last-minute for stuff. So all I really had to do was get dressed, eat breakfast, and go.
I caught the train on time, and switched to the red line at Belmont, which was packed with runners. I was lucky to get a spot on the train, because at the next stop, the now-full train stopped taking riders. Anyway, I got down to Grant Park and met up with everyone at the CES tent, checked my gear, and got situated.
I went over to my start corral, where I met up with a few other CES people who would be running with the CES pacers. I was going with the 2:30 pace group, which I knew might be a little aggressive, given my lapsed training, but I wanted to see how my legs would hold up. If they did, I'd stick with them. If not, I'd drop back and take it a little slower.
I struck up a conversation with a guy I'd met during training named Hirsch, and so he and I ran together, following the pacers when we got to the starting line.
I could tell pretty soon that I wasn't going to be able to keep up that pace for the whole race. It's interesting - some days my legs feel good and I can settle into a state of modest bodily discomfort, with the knowledge that I can keep that up for however far I need to go. And other days, I can tell not long after I start running that my legs are tired and the energy is going to have to come from somewhere else. Unfortunately, race day was the latter. After about 2 miles, my legs were either going to wake up and let me run, or they were going to stay feeling like they were still waking up. And they felt like they just weren't waking up.
One cool aspect of the race was that they had bands playing at every mile. My favorite was at mile 4. The guy was a tall Norwegian blond guy, dressed in tight white pants, white button-down shirt, and pink tie, singing Queen's "Another one Bites the Dust". While I think I'd have felt differently at mile 12, at mile 4 it was an amusing song to hear, and a real character singing it.
Despite my tired legs, I kept up with Hirsch and the pacers until a little after mile 5. Then I decided that I was going to walk for a minute or two, and told Hirsch that. He was glad, though, because he was thinking the same thing. So we walked together, then went back to running.
We kept that up until about mile 6.5 - the half way point. I needed another walk break, so I told Hirsch I was going to walk, but that he should keep running if he wanted to. So he kept going and I walked. I revised my plan to walking for a minute every mile or two, as needed to give my legs a little rest. So that's what I did. I'd walk through the water stations, get plenty of fluids, cool down with water on my head and down my back, then go again.
Right around mile 9 I made an unpleasant discovery. My nipple guard covering my right nipple had come loose, and I started to feel chaffing. There wasn't anything I could do about it. It didn't really hurt much. I just knew it would hurt later when I showered. But like I said, nothing I could do, so I just kept on. You can see the effect if you click here. Warning, it's not pretty. Sidebar - it looks worse than it actually was. Yes, it stung while showering, and it's kind of tender the day after. But it's not a disfigurement or anything.
I ended up catching up to Hirsch just before mile 10. He'd had to start walking as well, so I guess we equaled it out on time. So we started running together again. We got to about a little after mile 11, I think, and he wanted to walk some more. I was still feeling ok as for running, so I kept going.
About a half mile later, I started to feel some foot pain - right in the bottom of my feet. Not muscle cramping or anything like that. Just...pain. Basically, it felt like someone had been punching me in the feet for two and a half hours, which I guess was pretty close to the truth. Remember, this is the farthest I'd ever run. My previous longest run was 10 miles, so it wasn't unexpected that I'd have some issues with the longer distance. Anyway, I had to do a decent amount of walking for the last mile and a half. I stretched out my legs and feet a bit during this part, and that helped some. Also, a random CES member, a girl named Amy, stopped and walked/ran with me for a little while. We talked, and that helped distract me a bit from my feet.
Finally, I was rounding the bend by the Adler planetarium, which meant I was very close to the home stretch. There was one last uphill climb, which I decided to walk, and then the turn to the finish line. So I made the turn and ran it in to the home stretch. It was a great feeling to cross the finish line. But really, after the initial elation of finishing, I was just focused on recovering. I grabbed my finisher's medal, a bottle of water, an orange wedge, Clif bar, popsicle, and an iced towel, and proceeded to start bringing my body back to normal. My feet still hurt, so I was glad to get back to the CES tent and sit down to stretch for a while.
I have to say - one thing that really helped was running with Hirsch. While I am sure I'd have been able to do the race on my own, it definitely helped having someone with me.
One thing I did well was manage my fuel intake and hydration. The race only offered Cytomax and water, and I always trained with Gatorade. They say you shouldn't try something new on race day, so I wanted to avoid the Cytomax.
So I filled my fuel belt with 32oz of Gatorade (4x8oz containers). And I took 2 packets of Gu with me as well. So basically, at the water stations, I'd drink water and pour water over my head, and between stations, I'd drink about 4 oz of Gatorade. Then when one fuel belt container was empty, I'd fill that with water at the next water station, so I'd always have fluids with me.
I took my first Gu packet around mile 5 and the second one around mile 10. I ran out of Gatorade around mile 9 and just drank water after that.
That seemed to work pretty well for me.
What really sucked was the walk back to the train. When I finished the race, I think the endorphins were still kicking in, helping me ignore my feet. But after resting, I was walking pretty gingerly to get to the red line.
Anyway, that's about it. I'm glad I did it. I'll be more glad to finish recovering and get back to my regular training schedule. I've got my next half marathon in 5 weeks, and I want to be better-trained so I can finish faster and finish in better bodily shape than this time.
Distance: 13.1 miles
Time: 2:46:33
Observations:
Well, my goal was to finish, and I did. After missing almost a month of my training because of my foot injury, I knew that I was going to have to revise my time estimate and goals for the race, so really, my intention was to finish. I knew that I was going to have to push myself, and that the prudent thing to do would be not to run, but I made a decision that I wanted to do it, so I did.
On Sundays, the brown line starts running at 5:00 AM, so there wasn't any need to get up earlier than 4:30. I'd arranged all my clothes and gear the day before, so I wouldn't be scrambling last-minute for stuff. So all I really had to do was get dressed, eat breakfast, and go.
I caught the train on time, and switched to the red line at Belmont, which was packed with runners. I was lucky to get a spot on the train, because at the next stop, the now-full train stopped taking riders. Anyway, I got down to Grant Park and met up with everyone at the CES tent, checked my gear, and got situated.
I went over to my start corral, where I met up with a few other CES people who would be running with the CES pacers. I was going with the 2:30 pace group, which I knew might be a little aggressive, given my lapsed training, but I wanted to see how my legs would hold up. If they did, I'd stick with them. If not, I'd drop back and take it a little slower.
I struck up a conversation with a guy I'd met during training named Hirsch, and so he and I ran together, following the pacers when we got to the starting line.
I could tell pretty soon that I wasn't going to be able to keep up that pace for the whole race. It's interesting - some days my legs feel good and I can settle into a state of modest bodily discomfort, with the knowledge that I can keep that up for however far I need to go. And other days, I can tell not long after I start running that my legs are tired and the energy is going to have to come from somewhere else. Unfortunately, race day was the latter. After about 2 miles, my legs were either going to wake up and let me run, or they were going to stay feeling like they were still waking up. And they felt like they just weren't waking up.
One cool aspect of the race was that they had bands playing at every mile. My favorite was at mile 4. The guy was a tall Norwegian blond guy, dressed in tight white pants, white button-down shirt, and pink tie, singing Queen's "Another one Bites the Dust". While I think I'd have felt differently at mile 12, at mile 4 it was an amusing song to hear, and a real character singing it.
Despite my tired legs, I kept up with Hirsch and the pacers until a little after mile 5. Then I decided that I was going to walk for a minute or two, and told Hirsch that. He was glad, though, because he was thinking the same thing. So we walked together, then went back to running.
We kept that up until about mile 6.5 - the half way point. I needed another walk break, so I told Hirsch I was going to walk, but that he should keep running if he wanted to. So he kept going and I walked. I revised my plan to walking for a minute every mile or two, as needed to give my legs a little rest. So that's what I did. I'd walk through the water stations, get plenty of fluids, cool down with water on my head and down my back, then go again.
Right around mile 9 I made an unpleasant discovery. My nipple guard covering my right nipple had come loose, and I started to feel chaffing. There wasn't anything I could do about it. It didn't really hurt much. I just knew it would hurt later when I showered. But like I said, nothing I could do, so I just kept on. You can see the effect if you click here. Warning, it's not pretty. Sidebar - it looks worse than it actually was. Yes, it stung while showering, and it's kind of tender the day after. But it's not a disfigurement or anything.
I ended up catching up to Hirsch just before mile 10. He'd had to start walking as well, so I guess we equaled it out on time. So we started running together again. We got to about a little after mile 11, I think, and he wanted to walk some more. I was still feeling ok as for running, so I kept going.
About a half mile later, I started to feel some foot pain - right in the bottom of my feet. Not muscle cramping or anything like that. Just...pain. Basically, it felt like someone had been punching me in the feet for two and a half hours, which I guess was pretty close to the truth. Remember, this is the farthest I'd ever run. My previous longest run was 10 miles, so it wasn't unexpected that I'd have some issues with the longer distance. Anyway, I had to do a decent amount of walking for the last mile and a half. I stretched out my legs and feet a bit during this part, and that helped some. Also, a random CES member, a girl named Amy, stopped and walked/ran with me for a little while. We talked, and that helped distract me a bit from my feet.
Finally, I was rounding the bend by the Adler planetarium, which meant I was very close to the home stretch. There was one last uphill climb, which I decided to walk, and then the turn to the finish line. So I made the turn and ran it in to the home stretch. It was a great feeling to cross the finish line. But really, after the initial elation of finishing, I was just focused on recovering. I grabbed my finisher's medal, a bottle of water, an orange wedge, Clif bar, popsicle, and an iced towel, and proceeded to start bringing my body back to normal. My feet still hurt, so I was glad to get back to the CES tent and sit down to stretch for a while.
I have to say - one thing that really helped was running with Hirsch. While I am sure I'd have been able to do the race on my own, it definitely helped having someone with me.
One thing I did well was manage my fuel intake and hydration. The race only offered Cytomax and water, and I always trained with Gatorade. They say you shouldn't try something new on race day, so I wanted to avoid the Cytomax.
So I filled my fuel belt with 32oz of Gatorade (4x8oz containers). And I took 2 packets of Gu with me as well. So basically, at the water stations, I'd drink water and pour water over my head, and between stations, I'd drink about 4 oz of Gatorade. Then when one fuel belt container was empty, I'd fill that with water at the next water station, so I'd always have fluids with me.
I took my first Gu packet around mile 5 and the second one around mile 10. I ran out of Gatorade around mile 9 and just drank water after that.
That seemed to work pretty well for me.
What really sucked was the walk back to the train. When I finished the race, I think the endorphins were still kicking in, helping me ignore my feet. But after resting, I was walking pretty gingerly to get to the red line.
Anyway, that's about it. I'm glad I did it. I'll be more glad to finish recovering and get back to my regular training schedule. I've got my next half marathon in 5 weeks, and I want to be better-trained so I can finish faster and finish in better bodily shape than this time.
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