Oh Everest, My Everest

This morning was pretty brutal. I itched all night from the score of bug bites covering my legs (again). I have no idea where these little fuckers even are! When are they getting a shot at biting me? I only ever go outdoors to run or go to my car and I always put on bug repellant when I run! >:(

I smelled like a walking Vicks factory when I finally got in to work. Then when the Vicks kicked in and made my legs stop itching, I realized that there was another reason I had a hell of a time waking up this morning: I had the beginnings of the SICK. The mildly irritated throat, the slightly warm temperature, the full body aches...

I used to get sick all the time. ALL. THE. TIME. Frequent and recent enough to know that I have to head it off at the pass with a bunch of zinc, vitamin C, food and sleep. If not, it usually takes me out for a whole week. I mean, I stay sick for almost two weeks as it fades away in that annoying sniffly-coughy way, but I am down for the count for a good long week at the beginning.

Looking ahead into my work week and the fact that school starts tomorrow (no small deal right now), I thought maybe I should do what I could to head it off at the pass. So I called in a solid you-owe-me from all the people at work who have been benefiting from my usual run-myself-into-the-ground-to-get-things-done approach for the past 1-10 months. I didn't feel quite right doing it, but once I laid down the facts (especially the part about having to be OUT-out for a couple of days if I let it get bad), well, let's just say that they all decided to just bite the bullet and help me out.

A little after 3pm, I grabbed the lunch I had had delivered 2.5 hours earlier and ran upstairs to eat, take preventative meds and sleep. I put in Little Miss Sunshine (great flick!) and slept through it. Then I woke up to the main menu screen and switched over to cartoon network where, to my delight, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends was on. More sleeping and sleepy watching. Then around 10pm I was awake.

Remembering Coach's words of warning as he rode his bike alongside me this last weekend - making sure I wasn't going to pass out in the humidity - I decided to go running and tire myself out for bed. Two birds, one stone. I need to make sure to do at least two short runs during the week. I am not even doing the minimum. How am I supposed to run this bitch in October if I can't even make time for little 3-milers and such during the week? I won't. That's how.

So out I went around 11pm (it took an hour of self-coaxing to get around to actually dressing and going out for a run at this hour). It was relatively cool and nice. I reek of Off!, but I don't have any new bites (thank goodness). It was a mediocre speed run. Miles in the bank. Forward motion. One foot in front of the other. I guess that's all a person can do when her body is screaming for her to quit. Anything it takes to not give in.

Much as it pained me to abandon a bunch of people at the office who needed me to be there, I'm glad I slept off the sick today. When my body calls in a you-owe-me, I'd be stupid not to deliver.

Labels: bites, cartoons, lemon-lime powerade, long run, movies, short run, sick, speed run

Massages are jubbin' great. Today I had no comparable knots to last month, but my back was all manner of tense and she couldn't get my traps to relax for a long time. Nearly at the end, I flipped over and she put her hands under my back and gravity (and probably the previous hour of her work) did the trick and they just popped open and relaxed! It was like [insert Catholic school girl joke here]! Next one's scheduled for the night before the Quantico half. Word.

Oh, and it's accidental rest week again. Surprise! But this time I think it was my real rest week and I at least did a good specovery run on Sunday after the whopping 16. That should count for something. I'm sure the 12 this Saturday will be better than the last 12 I did. (Here's hoping anyway...)

Labels: massage, rest week

I just put my registration form & check in the mail for the Quantico Half Marathon: "the official training event for the Marine Corps Marathon." Screw that unofficial shit I did a few weeks ago. This is official.

...I'm kind of nervous. There are going to be a lot of Marines running a lot faster than me and mister-man will be there to see me looking really miserable and being very slow. They even allow people to race with strollers. I keep imagining these tough moms zooming past me, pushing twins in double-wide running strollers. Just how pathetic will I be?

I need to stop thinking about other people and remember why I'm doing this. :\

Labels: jitters, Quantico Half Marathon, race, Riley's Rumble

Yesterday was a rough one, but I did it! I ran 16 miles! 16.4 to be exact. I don't particularly feel like reliving it, but I will summarize it by saying that it was long and arduous and my knees hurt the whole damn time despite the Tylenol I took at the beginning. I developed a case of tourette's just as I hit mile 14 and I think I'm just now shaking it. (Maybe not. I still have a few choice words in me.) I also had a great desire to spear the people running in front of me. They just looked too damned chipper. Good thing I didn't actually have a spear or any functional substitutes handy.

Mister-man had some good advice for me after I vented to him yesterday. He said that I should try doing some jumprope warm-up and a stretch before I run. This is usually not necessary for long runs since we run the whole thing slowly and do the warming up by attempting to negative split and running especially slow the first 3-5 miles. But it did make me realize why my knees hurt so much: I should have done exactly that before my two short runs this last week, since I chose to do speed runs for both. That's precisely the kind of workout that requires a warm-up and stretch. My knees hurt since that first speed run and only got worse through the end of the week, culminating in a world of pain for over 3-1/2 hours yesterday morning. (Who am I kidding? I'm still in a lot of pain.)

Anyway, I was going to go back to my usual wimpy 1-mile recovery run at a whopping 14-ish minute pace, but the thought of being on my knees for that long and only accomplishing one mile wearied me. Plus, I need to add miles during the week as we stay in the double digit mileage from here on out. I decided that from now on, no matter how tired I am, I should be shooting for runs that are no shorter than 3 miles. I mean, am I just going to stop before I get to the end of that marathon because I'm tired? Hell no. So, I took off into the nice misty day for a jog around some different parts of campus.

The cool weather felt good, so I just sort of took off with nary a care. My recovery run morphed into a speed workout. There were no sprints involved, which I typically like to incorporate into speed runs, but then neither were there any during my last two. I guess it's a good sign that I didn't notice until I finished, all out of breath and feeling accomplished. If I had gone just another half mile, I would have logged 20 miles this weekend. (!!) Given how beat up I feel, I'm perfectly happy with 19.5. That's a big enough deal for this little chicken.

Labels: consecutive key workouts, knees, long run, nsaids, recovery run, short run, shot blocks, speed run, sport beans, violent urges

THE NEED FOR SPEED

Two key workouts in a row and two speed workouts in one week. That's supposed to be really stupid, but it can't be as stupid as not running at all. I just have to do what I can when I can, make sure I don't miss the long runs and hope for the best.

Still, my time was great, considering the shape I'm in! I maintained a 10:30 pace for the first two miles (give or take 4 seconds) and then dropped to 11:00 on the last mile because I tanked and forgot to bring water. The shot block I ate before the run was obviously spent as well. I was lucky to finish the mile at that point. And now my knees kill.

Am I anywhere near even the minimum PFT on my 3-mile run yet?

Labels: consecutive key workouts, knees, PFT, short run, shot blocks, speed run

I made up a new word today: jub. It's the new f-bomb. I was trying to type 'job' but I was all u's today.

Planned to do three miles at top speed tonight, but I only got one out before it was time to get back to my place to let my guest in. I'm housing a co-worker for the next two days because of the overtime and her hour and a half drive home. The one mile I did have time for was good and fast (for me) though, so at least I didn't waste a night. It's a slippery slope when you let one day get wasted... another 13 follow very easily, especially when there's plenty of work to do at the office.

At 9:45, it's the second fastest mile I've run in my life. The only time I've ever run a mile faster was when I was in 10th grade and I pulled a 9:00. Not bad for being eight years older, and a lot bigger and heavier. Maybe if I make my weekly speed run just one mile instead of three, or at least run the first mile at top speed and then do the other two as fast as I can stand after my extreme effort, then I'll be able to have a nice little 1-mile PR sometime before the big day. That would be a nice little accomplishment to keep me motivated as my life gets busier and everything gets more stressful. I'm gunnin' for 8, baby!

Labels: apple, short run, speed run, sport beans

After nearly two full weeks since my last run (a short recovery run the day after the infamous Riley's Rumble), I have to say that the long run yesterday felt like a renaissance... complete with a second trip through the metaphorical birth canal.

It was the same 12-mile route we ran at Belle Haven a few weeks ago, when it was my first time running 12 miles. That week, I had done extra credit and ran 12.75 in pursuit of a comfort station. Yesterday I was lucky to run exactly 12. (Well, I did decide to throw in the extra .02 when I sprinted to the next big tree after I heard the little beep from my watch telling me I'd just finished my 12th mile. It meant getting to the food a few seconds sooner.)

Clearly I hadn't lost all my strength or resolve during the long hiatus. Nor had I lost my will to get up obscenely early on a Saturday morning (and only on Saturday morning) to drive out and meet the group on a beautiful trail. It helped a lot that the weather was disturbingly reminiscent of May (when the actual May was disturbingly reminiscent of July). There was a cool breeze and I actually shivered a touch on my walk to the car at 6am. The sun came out later, but it never felt oppressive.

What felt oppressive was the imaginary slave driver on my shoulder, cracking the whip against my tired heart. Of all my aching parts, my cardiovascular system labored on the most painfully. I was in pain throughout the first mile and thought, oh god, I feel like this after one mile? The second mile felt twice as bad and I thought for sure that little engine in my chest was going to stall and I'd find myself lying on my side, huffing and puffing like the song from a wind-up music box coming to its sad end.

Yet I continued on into an equally painful Mile Three, with members of my group finally catching and passing me. I'd left early to shorten the amount of time the coaches would have to wait for me to come back at the end, knowing I'd be stumbling in at a much slower pace than usual. Mile Four was surprisingly pleasant. I started to feel the strength and confidence I used to feel throughout most of my long runs. I felt like I could go on like that forever.

Yesterday, forever lasted exactly 1.5 miles.

I wanted to push on to run at least 5, but I had to slow down a bit. Then I got to 5 and wondered what all the fuss had been about, deciding to just go for my old routine and not make any significant stops or walk breaks until I hit the halfway mark. I did stop at each water fountain along the way (probably 3 or 4 of them?), but only long enough to take two long draughts and a careful final swallow. Those were more like pauses than stops. In the end, I never took any extended walk breaks like the ones I used to take midway through a run and then again three-quarters of the way through. I think this is because of my new fueling technique.

For the first time since I started this running business, I left my Clif bar at home. Instead, I brought with me a pack of sport beans and two packs of Clif shot blocks. (This was the recommended amount for a workout of that length.) I ate half of the pack of beans before the run and then the rest in 3 more doses of 4-6 beans along the way. I ended up eating only two shot blocks, and I even spit out half of the first one when I couldn't swallow it or keep it in my mouth any longer. The shot blocks were really helpful because I love (and I mean *love*) the texture in my mouth. (Just like my favorite gummy candies.) Of course, there's a lot more to them than just sugar, so the first one early in the run (after mile 3) was a little too much for my system, thus its unceremonious end on the grass alongside the trail. I sucked on it for a while, drank some water, more sucking, more water... got hungry and bit it in half and gobbled a little chunk down, lots more water, and then more sucking for as long as I could stand it in my mouth.

I don't remember when I ate the sport beans, but it was pretty much whenever water was tasting too watery, gatorade wasn't giving me enough of a kick, and shot blocks seemed too substantial. I think between these products, I may have a winning combination of fuels for the big day. I also still have some other gummy sport candies to try next week. I picked up these candies called sharkies when I went to REI for the sport beans and shot blocks. I like them because they remind me of childhood (at least from what I could tell from the packaging). I'll throw those in my little pouch for next week instead of the second back of shot blocks and I should be good to go.

I know I should have done a recovery run this morning, but I skipped it to catch up on sleep. Since I had a late reservation at the Prime Rib on Friday night for restaurant week, I only had about 3.5 hours of sleep before the run. I made up for it with a shameful amount last night/this morning. There could still be time for a little recovery action this evening, but I've got my other restaurant week dinner date and I'm not missing out on the hot culinary action and fine wine. I'm even taking the metro so I can actually drink tonight!

Incidentally, that prime rib was the best pre-run dinner I've ever had. I wish I could do that every week!

Labels: long run, prime rib, restaurant week, Riley's Rumble, shot blocks, sport beans