Oh Everest, My Everest

There may be a piece of my brain missing, but I sure do love a good long run in the rain. Last Sunday, I spent three and a half hours slogging through puddles and wiping Tropical Storm Hanna out of my eyes to keep my contacts in. I am fairly certain I complained a lot (at least in my head), and felt like giving up just about every other second. But then I felt guilty for promising to keep a newcomer from getting lost so I did my best to stay with her despite my internal protestations. I was watching her heels and jumping over (or through) enormous puddles most of the time, so my mind was sufficiently occupied. I am thinking they should create a new track & field event - the marathon steeplechase.

The highlights of the run were the ridiculously steep hills at the turn around (miles 8-10) and a group of fellow runners' reactions to a sign warning not to touch the water because the creek was a sewage overflow area. I decided to just keep it to myself that the sign was referring to the water in the ditch about 10 feet below and not to the stuff that was coming out of the sky. I guess that's a little bit evil, but if you don't have enough sense to know that sewage overflow doesn't come from the clouds, then you probably deserve to feel a little icky from thinking that the rain falling on you contains urine. If there were actual human waste getting on them somehow, you can be sure I would not stay silent.

In any case, I am very grateful to the saint who slowed down to run 18 miles with me in order not to get lost because I surely got the better end of that deal. I am also glad to have passed the test I made for myself today! I increased my mileage by 50% in one week, which is generally not advisable, but I didn't injure anything and even made record time. MCM, here I come!

Labels: blisters, GU, long run, purple gatorade, rain

Saturday's run was horrible. My stomach was so unsettled and I wanted to hurl all the fluid out of my body, yet I was starting to get dehydrated. No thank you, sir. I'll not have seconds.

Then more work-related stress... GERMS everywhere... and of course that fun little tickle and post-nasal drip that likes to come warn me when I'm about to get super duper sick. I decided to strike pre-emptively and take a few days off to sleep and sit on my couch catching up on my reading. I flooded my system with zinc lozenges. I drank OJ like there was no tomorrow. Today, I feel relatively good. (Read: not sick.) My run just now was pretty painful and I *just* got warmed up as I finished my 3 miles, but I needed to come home to make sure I got enough time to sleep for (you guessed it) work tomorrow. There seems to be a lot more of that going around lately.

I really can't wait for them to hire for that vacancy and for those two others who are supposedly filling the TWO OTHER VACANCIES to hurry up and come. It's been months with people dropping one by one and nobody waiting to take their places.

(BOO HOO, little girl.)

I know, I know. I'll quit bitching now.

Anyway, today's run reminded me of something the coach said about "miles in the bank." I had enough in the account to keep it open and look for growth, but it was like I took an early withdrawal this week. It really showed tonight. I suppose I could have toughed it out and kept building and accruing interest, but when my throat started hurting, it seemed like it was a bigger risk to continue. When I get sick, I get SICK. I seem to have nipped it in the bud, but of course I am second guessing myself because now it's really easy to say that I probably wouldn't have gotten sicker anyway and I was just feeling lazy. Who knows?

In any case, it was kind of nice to have rain while I was out there again, though I wish I had gone a bit earlier. I wouldn't have been as hungry and it wouldn't have been so dark. Those were the other two reasons (besides needing sleep) that I figured I should just call it a night. Now my body's crying out for me to finish that 6 it wanted to do. I sure hope it still feels that way when I try to do 9 on Sunday!

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BLOG NEWS: Sam's started his own blog so I can pick on him now, too! Check it out; it's linked in the sidebar.

Labels: got dat funk, rain, rest week, sick

Running in the rain is great!

Heartburn is not. I need to lay off those cheap calzones.

I just wish it had rained yesterday when I wore my last clean pieces of technical gear. Cotton is no fun when you're all wet. Although, yesterday's run was quite the success. I combined the speed workout with the baby long run because I stupidly took three days off in a row again. When will I learn?

I think I only did so well because I was pacing myself against a dude and he wasn't much faster than me... I'm not faster than anybody, much less a dude. Here was my chance, and I took it. I did a 100-meter sprint for every lap around the mall (just shy of 1km) from my third through sixth lap (actually, I did two in the fourth lap). Then the dude I was beating finished his run and my distraction disappeared, leaving me with my twitchy muscles, throbbing knees and burning feet. I eeked out two more "easy" laps before I pretty much just wanted to pull out a knife and slice out the tendons in my knees. (They needed the extra space.)

Not having a knife handy, I decided on one more sprint to distract me. The rest of lap nine was spent catching my breath and wrangling my heart back into my chest. That just left excruciating lap ten for me to do, during which it was easier to convince myself to just keep going at my average long run pace because I was "warming down."

I've been on NSAIDS since Saturday - the maximum dose of ibuprofen plus one overlapping dose of aspirin during a really bad night. I iced my knees three times on Saturday and then again after my run yesterday, and I should do it again now. My knees are starting to complain. I'm having old ladies at work tell me that the reason they can't walk to the next building is because they didn't take care of their knees when they were young and running like me. (Gee, thanks.) I'm gonna quit it with the NSAIDS tomorrow, though. If I wake up in a lot of pain again, the morning will be my last dose. If not, this is it. No more drugs until after the Saturday long run. But I'm hopeful I won't really need them again until I add more mileage. I have this week and next to get my body accustomed to ten miles. Lord help my knees when the following week comes.

Labels: baby long run tuesday, calzones, heartburn, knees, nsaids, rain, short run, sprints, violent urges

I was excited all day to go on my first rainy run after work since it was raining all of yesterday and most of today... of course it decided to dry up AND get sunny just in time for me to put in my short, short run. Just like a typical short run for me, I felt like losing my lunch for the entire duration, then I hopped in the shower for 10 and completely forgot what I had just been doing. So, I guess I feel okay. It's almost like the run part didn't happen and I just felt like taking a second shower today, but then my sweaty running clothes remind me otherwise.



Today's run was informally timed, but I know I was in the neighborhood of a 12:10-12:15 pace maximum. And it was just shy of 2 miles. I hate it when that happens because 1.89 seems like sooo much less than 2. Then I feel like a loser for not just running that extra eleven-tenths of a mile, but it's not like I knew how far it was when I was out there! This is what happens when you just run wherever the hell you feel like it and then use gmaps to see how far you ran afterward. You have no idea what you've accomplished while you're out there, and more importantly, you have no idea what irrationally significant mile marker you could be crossing if you were just slightly less of a wuss.



I should really stop dwelling on that now. The important thing is that I am a loser because running fast is hard and I am le tired.



Just to shake things up a bit, I decided I would experiment with cadence today. I noticed that I consistently run at the same tempo (or at least within a very narrow range) that is pretty slow in the grand scheme of things. I just sort of lengthen my stride or pick up my knees to go faster when I need to, but otherwise I'm comfortable at this tempo. So I thought, what better idea than to try to do three loops around this giganto lawn at a much faster tempo than I'm used to, even if I really feel like I'm about to toss that apple I just ate? And so I did.



I was taking some weenie-ass little steps at some points along the way, but for the most part I tried not to be too much of a wuss. I experienced very uncomfortable and largely irregular breathing patterns and turned very, very red. I broke that sweat barrier that usually takes so long for me to reach pretty much immediately after I started. I even felt some sweat trickle down my neck, which is an entirely new sensation for this former couch potato. I focused all of my energy on maintaining that pace... and whatever was left of my focus was used to try to steady my breath. I did keep the pace, though shortening my steps on the uphill sections, but was never too successful with that breathing thing.



Of course, today was the shittiest of all the shitty shit shit days at work. (Don't get me wrong, there will be worse.. but today was pretty bad.) So, the fact that my heart was fluttering uncomfortably the whole time reminded me of the preceding nine hours of my day. It does that when I am running too fast and wanting to punch people in the face. You could say that it's my heart's thing.



I don't know what else to add. I mean, my chest and stomach feel like crap. My blood pressure has sort of been elevated all day because of uncomfortable conversations with my mom and about 5,000 angry people. I ate an apple RIGHT before I ran. I might as well have chewed it up and spit it out all over the front of my shirt. (Okay, that was gross. I'll stop.) My legs are kind of burning. My calves and quads were sore from the moment I started running and are only moreso now. I don't think I stretched adequately, but I'm not really in a calm mood. So, that explains most of it. I'm sure I'm still in pretty okay shape as far as my preparation for the 8-miler this week. I shortened my run today because I want to run 3 times mid-week instead of twice.



Unfortunately, I think the work will stay tense for at least the next three days. Most likely, it will last all summer because the next two busy weeks will melt right into when my colleague has decided to leave us for his new job. Then it will all be the big suck again. I guess I'd better get a handle on this stress thing so I can start enjoying the running again!

Labels: apple, cadence, gmaps, rain, short run