Don't worry, I haven't skipped any runs. I've just missed the part where I blog about them when I'm done. It's been a busy, busy week and for reasons unknown, I've been left feeling drained and unmotivated at the end of each work day.
I feel like these distances just aren't long enough. I'm supposed to do 13.1 miles in one go in 65 days, and I've thus far maxed at 12 miles in a week! It's not for lack of adherence - I've been following the routine as written, I've been keeping track of my times, and I can definitely feel myself becoming stronger, faster, and more comfortable running. It just seems like I should be ramping up a little bit more.
The 2 mile recovery run was easy, as well it should have been. One of those gorgeous thin-light days that looks like the beginning of autumn - it was warm, and I ran to my previously published playlist (well, 3-4 songs off of it) along the lovely South Lake Union area. My only complaint: as soon as you get past the I Love Sushi parking lot, you start running next to bushes, and it ALWAYS smells like dog poo there. There's nothing worse than triggering your gag reflex during a run. So...yeah. There's that.
The 3 miler was just a repeat of the hill run I did last Wednesday. Completed in just under 24 minutes, no stops. There are three note-worthy observations from this run:
1) There was no pain. Seriously, none. I know that this isn't that noteworthy, and it's not something on which I've focused in a lot of these posts. But, I spent nearly a year unable to do this at all because of pain in my back and upper hamstrings. To conquer a hill run without pain is a huge deal for me, and I'd feel morally remiss if I didn't express my relief and gratitude.
2) I overcame a major case of "the uninspireds." I had absolutely no desire to go running yesterday, even though it was gorgeous outside. I was tired, it had been a long, stressful day at work, and ...I was tired, damn it! But, I threw on my running shoes, my white adidas soccer shorts, and my favorite shirt (an American Apparel soft cotton shirt that has the state of Montana with a lightning bolt through it, flanked by two elk. it is the shit), threw the "Top Rated" iPod playlist on shuffle, and forced the first 20 feet. And then it felt absolutely wonderful.
3) Guilty pleasure songs are actually way better to pump me up. I am so, so, so sad and mortified and embarrassed to admit this, but Mariah Carey's Shake It Off not only resides on my iPod, but also made its way to my ears during yesterday's run and actually inspired me to pick up my pace. I am ashamed.
I'll write next time with more of my favorite guilty pleasure songs for running. Until then, happy trails!
2 comments:
Your schedule ramps you up to a 12 mile day two weeks before the half-. So it seems like you really should be fine.
Of course, if you wanted to set a personal best...
Was the back/hamstring thing an overtraining injury, or something else?
The ramp-up is good, I just feel like I should be getting up to 6 and 7 miles midweek by then, but the schedule maxes at 5 miles. It just seems a bit off to me, I guess :-/
I'm not going for a PR this time. This is my return to running - I know that a half-marathon seems extreme, but I knew that if I didn't have a goal, I probably wouldn't make myself get out there, and I'd never return to my running addiction that used to keep me in such good shape.
The injury...oh my. To be honest, my doctor, my physical therapists, none of us really knew exactly what happened. Some kind of trauma probably threw my pelvis out of alignment and prevented my body from communicating fully to the core in the right side of my body. Probably from Ultimate or possibly as old as a soccer injury. I started training heavily on it in 2008 (that's when I started running more than 8 miles at a time, and I lost something like 30 pounds that year), and since my body was out of whack, I was inadvertently overcompensating with my hamstrings. This put so much torque on them that they eventually started hurting. A lot. I didn't really listen to them, still played ultimate, etc. Finally, during an 18-mile run (I was training for the 2009 Rock 'n Roll marathon), the pain got to be so much that I couldn't really even walk anymore. I had just run past Seward Park and had to go into a Tully's to call my boyfriend at the time to come pick me up. I was in physical therapy for over 7 months, and didn't feel comfortable running full-speed in ultimate until about March of this year - over 1 year after the onset of pain. It's sad to see and feel how much I've lost :-/
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