Sunday, June 27, 2010

3.1 on a Sunday morning


After realizing the cramping problem was due to the Asics (damn! I liked those shoes too), I stopped in a Marathon Sports yesterday to be refitted. I left with a pair of Saucony Pro Grids to try out over the next couple of weeks to see how they work out.

I also had the summer cold from purgatory last week that had me feeling a little like Ariel in "Little Mermaid" as I had no voice for 2 days along with our companies 3rd product launch in 10 weeks... well, running was the last thing I had time for (along with grocery shopping and laundry).

This morning the sun was up, so I pulled on my new shoes - which look sort of lizardy because they're a moss colored green with silverish mesh over them - stoked up the Nike+ and headed out for my 3.1 mile route. It was clear when I started running that my lungs still weren't 100%, not surprising to me given last week's congestion, so I opted for a w5+r5 option for the route. That was pretty comfortable for me over all. By the end of the week I'll decide if I'm doing the 4 mile Hingham 4th of July race or not next Sunday.

Out on my run today I interrupted several groups of squirrels out playing tag in 3's and 4's. A couple of them hopped along with me, making me laugh. The birds were in full chorus and you could smell the flowers in the air. Summer is truly here and the world seems to be soaking it all in. All in all, it heralded a nice return from my break as I start to gear up for my half training.

So let's hear it for summer, new shoes and running.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

once again, this time with feeling: OWWW

I took almost a week off from running. Any walking I've done has been in my old shoes... per usual. No problems, the calf felt fine so I went out for a run and sure enough, a mile in I got hit with crampcrampcrampcrampcramp again.

After a half hour of normal household stuff (carrying laundry up from the basement, making breakfast, etc.) it feels fine. So tomorrow I try a new experiment: wear my old shoes for my run and see what happens. If things are fine, then I know it's the shoes. If they aren't, I'll call my ortho.

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

another run turned walk

OK, maybe the leg cramp is coming from needing new warm up strategies. Maybe it's because I haven't been taking my vitamins. Maybe it's just one of those things.

I honestly don't know, but I don't like this happening again 10 minutes into my run. I did try pushing past it, but no.

So today it's a case of searching the net to see what I can figure out. I know it's not fatigue, my mileage goal make look insane, but that's just recording the walking I normally do as well as the running for a Nike+ challenge. So that leaves nutrition and stretching to work on.

Starting today: I will lay out my vitamins for the rest of the week and make sure I take each one. I think I'll start by moving my PT to the front of my run instead of end. Perhaps that will help loosen things up enough.

Tomorrow instead of running in the AM and walking the Marsh Post course, I will walk in the AM and PM and see how that feels. I'll take Friday off, walk Saturday and my "long" run Sunday will maybe be 3 or 4 miles. If I can't make it through Sunday's run, I'll call my orthopedist on Monday.

Sounds like a plan.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

owowowowcrampcrampcramow

Today was w5+r10+owowowowcrampcrampcrampow w5+r5+ owowowowowcrampcrampcrampowowow w5 +PT for 2.5 miles

I don't like it when my calves cramp up at all. I haven't really had that problem, I hear about it all the time with runners, but it never really hit me before.

Before the owowowow moments, I noticed some things. I am walking faster. Because of a Nike+ challenge at work, a lot of us are logging our walking as well as our running. I'm covering more distance in less time, which is nice. Today when I went out, I realized that I am covering a 1/4 mile more than I used to in the same time. That is, I walk for 5 minutes as a warm up. Normally that takes me to just inside a set of traffic lights, and then I run. Today it took me to the far side of the lights and then some.

It used be that I would hope to cover a full mile in 15 minutes. Today I noticed I covered close to a mile and a quarter in that same 15. I didn't feel any faster and I wasn't exerting myself more ... or at least it didn't feel that way and there I was - all the way down the block. :)

A little heat and massage and the cramp is now history and it's time to move on with the day. Here's to it being ancient history.

Friday, June 04, 2010

How did I get here?

Today's run was brought to you by some Funky Soul music...the fabulous MISS CHAKA KHAN and Stevie Wonder.

It started by pushing myself out the door on a muggy morning after hitting the genius booger on the iPod while listening to "I Feel For You." iTunes knew better than to mess with a good thing and kept putting up some old school Stevie Wonder mixed with Chaka Khan and every so often tossed in a few other bits here and there.

The first five minutes of my run were, "Well, at least I'm out here." Then the rest of the run was "How did I get here already?" At my turn around point I figured, "Oh, I'll run as far as the turn off and then I can walk." At the turn off it was, "I'm here already? I guess just down the hill..." next thing I knew, I was at my stop running and cool down point.

All in all, an odd run with some old school funk and soul to carry me through.

Not a great run, but a good one and many days that's more than a girl can hope for in the end.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Gotta have the funk..

which would have been today's soundtrack instead of Green Day but apparently my funk stuff is not on my iPhone. Hmmmm.... time to make some new playlists I guess.

Funks happen. For me I know one is about to start when, like the other day, I sat on the couch dressed and ready to go out for a run but couldn't bring myself to make it out the door. My shoes sit there begging me to just slip my feet in and they'll carry me the rest of the way, but I just can't muster the whatever to even do that much.

They always end the same way as well, that is me sitting there in my running gear and I slip my feet into my shoes and they carry me the rest of the way.

It happens to all of us. It's not about whether things in our lives are pressing or sad or happy or busy or whatever. It's just sometimes you gotta have the funk. The problems come when you wallow in it or let it eclipse your overall goals.

Today was a good run. I got 2.5 solid miles in with running and PT. Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown did a good job helping my shoes carry me along the way.